


Balance of Power

by alexcat



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-07
Updated: 2011-04-07
Packaged: 2017-10-17 17:59:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 25,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/179650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Is there a new threat to the galaxy after the Ori and Goa’uld are defeated?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue and Chapter One

Prologue

2003

Jack O’Neill watched the young man as he walked up to the giggling girls in the high school yard. He knew that the boy was, for all intents and purposes, an exact copy of himself. But he was different. Just in the short amount of time that he’d spent with the boy, he knew that this boy was not going to make all the mistakes he had.

At least he hoped he didn’t make all of them.

As he drove away, he looked back once as young Jack pulled his sunglasses off and began to talk to the girls.

~~

~~

~~

~~

 

Chapter One

\- SGC Cheyenne Mountain Complex, 2009

Second Lieutenant Jonathan O’Neill reported to his commanding officer at the SGC. He didn’t know the guy; General Hammond had been in charge the last time he was here. He had been saddened when he’d heard that General Hammond had passed away. The man had been like a father to him -- to Jack. He had sneaked into the back of the church for the funeral and slipped out before anyone saw him. He owed Hammond that much.

General Landry cleared his throat. “Jonathan O’Neill?” The general raised an eyebrow. “Any relation?”

“No sir, Sir,” he stammered.

Okay, so he was nervous. Very nervous. Why he had requested this duty was beyond him at the moment. Oh well, he’d make it through like he did everything else. He’d pretend to himself that it simply wasn’t important.

~~

General Hank Landry actually knew exactly who this boy was. He had read about him the first week he’d been at Stargate Command. He had wondered then if and when the young man would show up at their door.

“Well, Lt. O’Neill, I have decided to put you with Mitchell and Jackson on SG-1. They’re the first team and you’d make a good fourth for them.”

“Who is Mitchell? Where’s Carter? Or Teal’c?”

“Carter is commanding the _George S. Hammond_. Mitchell is the team leader now and Teal’c spends most of his time on Chulak.”

“Who else is on the team?”

“Vala Mal Doran, an alien who joined us several years ago.”

“Yes, sir!”

“You can stop that too. We are a bit more informal here than your average base but I expect that you already know more about this place than I ever will.”

Young O’Neill blinked in surprise.

“Yes, Lt. O’Neill, I am aware of who you are. Just make me proud, boy.”

O’Neill would have laughed except that he could see that Landry actually meant what he said. What an odd fellow this Landry was. The General called for Walter to help the young man find his quarters and settle in. “Chief, make him feel at home,” Landry called as they left the General’s office.

“He a good commander?” O’Neill asked.

Walter nodded. “He’s one of the best, sir.”

O’Neill shared the room with three other junior officers. None were present at the time so he put his stuff on the empty bunk and looked around the room. What was he to do now? He knew more from memory than most of the people here would ever know. Maybe this had been a mistake.

He put his things away and wandered down to the mess hall. There was cake! Some things never changed. He grabbed a piece of cake and some coffee and found a table. Not many people were there in the middle of the morning but the ones who were weren’t familiar to him, except the older fellow who was pushing his broom slowly across the floor. The man had always been a fixture here.

“Ah, there you are!” It was Daniel. “Jack--”

“I go by Jonathan, Dr. Jackson. It seemed the right thing to do.”

Daniel was completely undaunted as he turned to the man behind him. “Jonathan, this is Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell.”

He started to stand but Mitchell motioned him down. “Good to meet you, Lt. O’Neill.”

“Did you get settled in? General Landry said you’d be living here on base for a while,” Jackson asked.

“Yes, I have roommates. Haven’t met them yet though. I believe they’re all out on missions.”

“We came down to ask if you wanted to go out to dinner tonight with us and Vala, sort of a get to know you thing.”

“But I already know you,” Jonathan countered.

Jackson smiled at him, “But you’ve not met our other team member.” Mitchell grinned too. What was this Vala? Some horrid alien monster woman?

“General Landry didn’t give me any duties yet so why not? I’m all yours.”

He returned to his room and rearranged his stuff a bit then changed into jeans and a t-shirt. Seeing Jackson had been good. He had missed him, Carter and Teal’c too but now it looked as if Jackson was the only one of the old gang left. Maybe it would be easier for them all that way.

They met at six o’clock for dinner and O’Neill almost choked when he saw Vala. She certainly wasn’t what he expected. She was gorgeous with that curvy figure and dark mane of wild hair.

“Hello, um, Jonathan?” She shook his hand and smiled a bit lamely at him. Her voice was as sexy as she was too.

“That’s me,” he finally managed. God, he was acting like a simpering boy!

“They didn’t tell me how much you look like the general,” she breathed at him as Jackson grabbed her elbow and dragged her into the restaurant. He remembered eating here with SG-1 before. It had a pretty good steak, if he was correct. Looked like Jackson had his hands full with Vala. Jonathan smiled. Jackson needed a woman like her to keep him on his toes. He’d always felt bad about Sha’re.

“I, - uh, yeah. I do look like Uncle Jack.”

“I thought you told me--” she turned to Jackson.

“I had to tell her, Ja- Jonathan. She is on the team and it might be important that she know someday,” Jackson explained.

“So who’s buying?” Jonathan was as cheap as Jack, something they all expected. All who knew Jack anyway.

They all decided to go Dutch. The dinner was good as always and Mitchell sprang for the cake they had for dessert, which pleased his youngest teammate.

*

Jonathan’s roommates were back when he got back. They were 2nd Lt. Sims, who was assigned to SG-5, and two brothers, Majors Marcus and Matthew Burke, who were on SG-7. They seemed like regular guys and Jonathan was pleased that they had no idea who he was.

As he lay in his bunk just before drifting off to sleep, he wondered what in the world he had gotten himself into.

~~~


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

\- Jack O’Neill’s office in the Pentagon, Washington, DC

“WHAT?” Jack nearly screamed into the phone. “How could that happen? Who did it?”

Jack had just talked with Col. Carter, who’d told him that not only had the Icarus base been attacked but that the entire planet had blown to bits. He was trying to get more information but so far, he knew more than the people he talked to.

He knew that the whole project was a bit iffy but to have the whole damn planet blow? Sheesh!

He wondered what Rush had done. He never was sure about any scientist types except for Sam and this Rush was a cagey one. He didn’t trust the other man’s motivations. But his mission had been to find where the wormhole opened with the ninth chevron. He was sure that’s what happened to those eighty people who went through the wormhole in those six minutes that Carter said it was open. Where the hell did they go? Who the hell blew up the planet? Why did he join the Air Force?

“Get me the SGC on the phone. I need to talk to General Landry,” he shouted to his assistant, who sighed and did as he asked. Just like he always did.

*

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

Nearly two thirds of the way across the country, Hank Landry answered his phone. He was a little surprised to hear from General O’Neill but then again, nothing could surprise the man who headed the SCG _that_ much anymore.

“What can I do for you, General O’Neill?”

“I need someone to find out who blew up the Icarus base. Someone attacked just a few minutes ago and the whole planet blew up. Carter just managed to jump out on _George Hammond_ before the explosion. She thinks the personnel might have gated out to wherever the ninth chevron goes.”

Landry was not surprised. The Pentagon had been putting pressure on the program to come up with more alien weapons technology and the IOA wanted more of any kind of technology and O’ Neill had come to be central figure in the two groups’ fight for power. They used him as a pushme-pullyou, more or less. Landry was glad that he mostly dealt with the military side of things. There were political games but nothing like those the IOA played with all its member countries, especially the Chinese and Russians.

“I can get SG-1 right on it. They have their new member so they’re back up to four.”

“Does he still look like a mini me?”

“Oh, yeah. Not quite so mini but from the stories I’ve heard, he’s just like you as a kid.” He paused and added, “Sir.”

“See if Rodney can come in to help with the problem of where the damn base personnel went. Oh and put Sheppard and Ronon Dex on this too. Aren’t they with SG-18?”

“Yes sir. You want Rodney there or here?” Landry had his fingers crossed that it would be anywhere but the SGC.

“There until he can link up with Carter. If anyone can figure this out, those two can. I kept telling everyone here that they should send Rodney to work on the Icarus project instead of Rush. Rodney is annoying but Rush is obsessed. They insisted that Rush is the foremost expert and unfortunately, Jackson agreed.”

“Consider it done, sir. I think Rodney is still on Atlantis but I’ll get in touch with him.”

“Tell Walter that my assistant still makes awful coffee.”

Landry smiled. “Will do, sir.” He knew better but the Chief would smile to hear it.

*

\- Onboard the _Atlantis_

Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, Rodney McKay was eating green Jell-O and wondering if there was cake left too. His workload had been light the last few days so he was doing some calculations on making ZPMs to power Earth cities. They weren’t there yet but they would be. Soon.

“Dr. McKay, sir, there’s a call for you from General Landry.” The young enlisted man looked scared to death of him.

“Tell him I’ll call back after lunch.”

“He said you’d say that and he said to bring the phone to you.”

Rodney rolled his eyes.

“He said ‘Now,’ sir, Dr. McKay, sir.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake.”

The young man handed the cordless phone to McKay.

“You want me to what? But I can’t just-- yes, General Landry. I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

The young man held back a grin as Rodney handed him the phone.

“Where is Mr. Woolsey?”

“In his office, sir.”

Rodney didn’t want to leave, especially not to try to figure out what that crazy Nicholas Rush had done. He couldn’t understand why they’d chosen Rush over him to head the Ninth Chevron/Icarus Base project in the first place.

Okay. He could understand it but he didn’t have to like it. Everyone knew the only person in the universe almost as intelligent as he was, was Sam Carter… well, maybe his sister too but that was it. Okay, maybe Zelenka as a third but it would never do to tell him. Rush was way down on the list. Way down.

And now they wanted _him_ to fix the mess?

“Mr. Woolsey? I--”

“General Landry already called me and your jumper leaves in about forty-five minutes. Go pack.”

*

Colonel Samantha Carter was winding her way back to Earth as quickly as possible. This was a disaster! Her ship had taken some damage but they’d not been the focus of the attack. The attack had been directed almost entirely on the small base. She suspected the use of the Stargate to dial the ninth chevron had been what made the unstable naquadah core of the planet blow though, not the hits from the invaders.

She poured herself another cup of coffee and stretched. This day had already seemed a month long. She wondered who did this. Were there enough of the Lucian Alliance left? They’d used Goa’uld ships so that was one vote for the Alliance. No one was even sure who had taken over leadership of the group since they’d finally ended the Ori incursion.

If only they knew where the ninth chevron went. Now they might never know.

~~~


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

Jonathan O’Neill did not get much of a chance to orient himself before he and his team were thrown into the fire. Morning came with the news about the Icarus base being destroyed as well as the planet the base was located on, planet P4X-351.

Jonathan had not had time to catch up on all the mission reports so he knew little of the ninth chevron though he had read some of the Pegasus Galaxy and the Atlantis mission. He was surprised they hadn’t sent Daniel on that one. All that Ancient stuff was right up his alley.

SG-1 was seated around the conference table in the briefing room. General Landry entered the room.

“You already know, no doubt, that the Icarus base on planet P4X-351 was attacked and the entire planet blew when the naquadria core became unstable.”

Mitchell spoke. “I suppose we have no idea who did this.”

“Not yet. They were in Goa’uld ships but that doesn’t mean anything,” Landry answered. “Our first thought is that they could be the Lucian Alliance. After all, our Intel about where to find this planet came from them but I can’t see what they’d profit from blowing it up.”

“Maybe they really meant to gate to the ninth chevron destination,” Daniel added.

“The Lucian Alliance is all about power and profit so if it wouldn’t sell, they probably would have no interest in it.” Vala had been associated with the Alliance before she had hijacked the Prometheus and taken Daniel Jackson prisoner. That made her their resident expert.

Jonathan had read some about Vala and about the Lucian Alliance since he met her last night. Evidently they had sort of moved in when the Goa’uld ceased to be a power in the galaxy. They were a group of thieves and smugglers with no scruples whatsoever. They were a perfect fit for the power vacuum left by the Goa’uld.

Landry cleared his throat and they all quieted. “You and SG-18 will fly to the place where the planet was first, then you will try to contact the Lucian Alliance to see what they wanted or even if it was really them.”

“How will we get there?”

“You’ll be on the _Daedalus_.”

“Wouldn’t we be less conspicuous in an Al’Kesh?” Mitchell pondered.

“Maybe but we don’t have one at our disposal at this time. The one belonging to the Jaffa is the only one we have access to and it’s not available right now. The _Daedalus_ will have to do for now. Perhaps Ms. Mal Doran can help us figure out how to procure something less ‘conspicuous’.”

“So Sheppard and Dex are coming with us? All of SG-18 or just them?”

“Emmagen and Lorne will be along as well. Wouldn’t want to break up the team.” Landry smiled. “And, no, before you ask. No McKay. He’ll be coming here to work with Col. Carter on figuring where those eighty people are.”

There was a group wide sigh of relief. McKay was brilliant but he was a pain in the butt in a way that no one else could compare.

SG-1 dispersed to get their gear ready. They’d beam up to the _Daedalus_ in two hours and be on their way.

*

“So who is it, Jackson?” Cameron was curious what Daniel thought.

“Not the Lucian Alliance that I knew. They would have figured a way to steal everything first then killed everyone.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking too. But who? New bad guys?”

Daniel sighed. “I hope not. Every time we’ve rid ourselves of one dangerous enemy, another has popped up and I’m getting a little tired of fighting. I must be getting old.”

Mitchell clapped him on the back. “We all are, after these last few missions. We all are.”

*

Jonathan was packing his gear. He didn’t know much about the Lucian Alliance and the Ori but the enemies he had fought were bad enough. Surely none of them were worse than Goa’uld?

He hadn’t had time to reflect any on how odd it was to be back here and to actually not be Jack O’Neill. He had worried that it never would be possible but the new team members seemed to have no trouble treating him as a different person. Daniel was a little different but then he’d never had any respect for O’Neill’s rank in the first place. He’d considered O’Neill a friend and an equal in most ways though he did obey when he needed to. Most of the time.

This could be fun, in a totally strange sort of way.

He wondered if he’d get in trouble for downloading ‘The Simpsons’ when he got back. He smiled as he thought of Homer. Some things never changed at all.

*

Vala actually felt a sense of dread. She hated going against the Lucian Alliance and she hoped with all her heart that this was not their work. They were more dangerous in some ways than the Goa’uld. You knew the Goa’uld were evil and you knew you could never trust one of them at all. But the Alliance… they were humans and looked just like everyone else. They were capable of being your friend one minute and sticking a knife in your back the next.

On an entirely different note, the new boy was a clone! That was even weirder than all of Baal’s clones running around all over the galaxy. He did look like General O’Neill must have looked as a young man but why on earth would he want to come back here to work, when he had the whole earth to choose from?

She sometimes had nightmares about what would happen when SG-1 finally disbanded or when she got too old to be a member any more. Would they put _her_ in a cell at Area 51 as they had some of the Goa’uld prisoners? Would Mitchell and Daniel still be her friends? Maybe she could hang out on Chulak with Muscles…

A knock on her door interrupted her thoughts. “Ready?” It was Cam. She nodded, hefted her pack and followed him.

They were aboard the _Daedalus\_ in just a few minutes and getting ready to go into hyper drive to make twenty some odd light year trip to the empty space where the Icarus base had been located only a few hours before.

~~~~~


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

\- An unknown location somewhere in the galaxy

The commander looked at his fleet outside the viewport of his mother ship. He hadn’t wanted to sacrifice those ships and wouldn’t have if he’d known just how unstable that damned planet had been. He meant to drive the humans away, take what he needed and _then_ blow it and run. But it hadn’t worked out that way.

He sighed.

He hadn’t meant to tip his hand quite so quickly either. He needed time to gather as much naquadah as possible, to control so much that he could set the prices himself. Then he’d sell it to the humans and others who would need it to power their ships at as high a price as he could command. And they would be beholden to him. Again.

“Sir? You sent for me?” The officer looked nervous, even scared. He had no doubt heard of the fate of those who failed their commander.

“Yes. What happened? You weren’t supposed to lose your whole fleet.”

“The _USS George Hammond_ , sir. It was sitting in orbit.”

“Damn! SG-1! I might have known!” He slammed his fist against the arm of his chair. “This was your only chance to make a mistake like that. Next time, you will pay for it.”

“Yes sir!”

“Now go through the list of planets with naquadah deposits and find out if any more are as unstable as that one and also find out if any are remote enough to move in a take over quietly.”

“Yes sir.”

The officer bowed and left the room.

The commander smiled and stretched his arms over his head rather like a cat stretching. “So we meet shall again, SG-1. I’ve been waiting for this for quite a while.”

*

\- Aboard the _Daedalus_

The ship was underway. The trip was fairly short but no one knew exactly what they were expected to find. As far as they knew, when the planet had blown, it had obliterated everything around it.

SG-1 was on the bridge with Col. Caldwell. Caldwell always seemed a bit on the grumpy side but he was a good man. They all knew that, having spent a bit of time with him over the years.

“So just what are we looking for?” Caldwell asked Mitchell.

Mitchell shrugged. “Beats me. I guess we’ll know when see it.”

They arrived a few minutes later. The space where the planet had been was not empty. It was filled with… dust. There were small pieces of planet, ships and whatever else had been almost completely incinerated. Very small pieces.

“Holy hell! Look at that.” Mitchell said.

“Think there’s anything to find in that debris field?” Jonathan asked.

“Nothing much bigger than a baseball, I’d say,” Mitchell answered.

“Is there any reason for us to gather up any of this?” Vala asked. “We already know what hit the base and we know the naquadria caused the planet to explode.”

Mitchell shrugged. “She’s right. Not much to find out here, as far as I can see.”

“So where do we go from here?” Jackson asked Mitchell.

“I say we contact General Landry and tell him what we’ve found.”

So they did just that. Landry ordered them back to base, saying he had some ideas he wanted to bounce off of them.

*

\- Jack O’Neill’s office in the Pentagon

Jack sat and thought about what had happened. He knew where those eighty people went, and he knew they weren’t coming back any time soon, if ever. And he knew that he had Dr. Rush to thank for that. Dr. Rush and himself.

Not much more than an hour after the attack, Rush had used the communication stones to let O’Neill know what had happened.

O’Neill slammed his fist on his desk. Dammit all to hell! He should have known better than to trust Rush. The man was obsessed and he had nothing to lose either since his wife had died. Jack knew how that felt. That was how he felt when he’d first gone through that Stargate after Charlie had died.

The hell of it was that he couldn’t tell SG-1 what had happened to those people. He might be head of Homeworld Security but there were people he had to answer to also and they did not want anyone at the SGC to know the fate of those eighty people yet. He knew that Carter knew, but he couldn’t tell any of the others yet. Not even General Landry, though Landry was sure to guess the truth anyway.

They would all give him hell when they _did_ find out. His only consolation was that he had refused to let Jackson go with them. He couldn’t have stood losing Jackson. Again.

*

\- Aboard the _USS George Hammond_

Sam Carter knew where those people from Icarus base had gone. She told Jack as much. But she also knew that since it was officially speculation on her part, she would say nothing to anyone else. McKay would figure it out soon enough when he had the facts. She suspected that SG-1 would figure it out too as soon as they knew more about what happened.

She smiled. Not much got by her old teammates.

Or the new one either.

She’d just remembered that this was the week that the Jack O’Neill clone that Loki had made was to join Stargate Command as a brand new Second Lieutenant. She had been a little surprised when he’d gone to the Academy and proud that he’d finished so well when he graduated. She would never tell him but she’d kept up with him through his years in high school and college at the Air Force Academy.

She looked forward to meeting the grown up Jonathan O’Neill, as he called himself now. She hoped he’d still be at the SGC when she got there but Landry had indicated that they’d be heading out on the _Daedalus_ while her ship was in for some repairs from the damage they’d taken in the short fight at Icarus base.

They came out of hyperspace and she let Landry know that she was headed in.

~~~


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

The _Daedalus_ and the _George Hammond_ had arrived back in orbit. The _George Hammond_ needed some repairs so Carter had left the ship in the capable hands of her second in command, Major Jane McCoy. She arrived back at the SGC at almost the same time SG-1 beamed in from their assignment aboard the _Daedalus_.

They all were called in to the conference room. Landry was waiting for them at the head of the table. He nodded when everyone was seated.

“We have had a report of another attack. This was on another planet that had substantial naquadah deposits. Though the planet was habitable, the only people there were the miners and their families. Oddly enough their Stargate was not destroyed. It would appear that all their settlements were destroyed. There were quite a few survivors, who will be gating to a secure off world site as we speak.”

Carter looked angry. There had been nothing she could do to save Icarus base and now this. She took it as an almost personal affront, which was a bit unlike Carter. “Sir, I still have no idea who they were. They kept radio silence so we got no clues from transmissions and evidently there were no ships left to chase. All I know is they were Goa’uld ships.”

“That would point to the Lucian Alliance,” Landry said, “but they took nothing.”

“Certainly not like the Alliance I knew,” Vala stated as she had before.

“I called you all here for another reason. We have contacted Jonas Quinn. Even though the naquadria is mostly gone, that planet still has large deposits of naquadah. They could be in danger. I am sending the _Daedalus_ there.”

“What about the security team, the miners and the Unas on P3X-403?” Daniel Jackson had made friends with the Unas and felt protective of them. They had suffered much abuse as the very first Goa’uld hosts then as slave labor later on more than one planet.

“We have notified the security team,” Jackson asked.

“But what of the Unas?”

Landry sighed. “That is a problem we have not yet solved. There are so many of them and as you know only too well, they will not leave their sacred ground.”

Jackson sat and sighed. He’d think of something. He had to.

Mitchell spoke up. “Sir, can we really protect either planet? From what Carter says, we don’t have the ships to fight them anywhere they strike.”

“Nor can we evacuate a planet as populated as Langara is,” Carter added.

“Then I guess we have to find them and stop them, don’t we?” Vala asked.

“In order to do that, we have to figure who they are,” Daniel said.

Jonathan hadn’t said anything, being the junior member, but he finally spoke up. “No, we don’t. We just have to catch them.”

Landry nodded at Jonathan and continued, “Which brings me back to Langara and P3X-403. If we are watching, maybe we can catch a scout ship before the rest arrive to attack those planets. Maybe then we can find out who they are.”

*

SG-18 actually had not gone on the mission to check out the space around the Icarus planet. They’d still been off world on a mission and were briefed by Landry and SG-1 when they returned.

Sheppard shrugged as if it mattered little but then he always acted that way. “So what exactly are we going to do?”

“Watch the planets we think they may hit,” Mitchell answered.

“That’s it?”

“Until we figure out what else to do, it is.”

“Seems like we ought to be fighting someone… about something.”

Landry laughed. “Colonel Sheppard, you’ve said that on every mission you’ve been sent on since you got here. You have the attention span of a gnat. Fighting the Wraith so often must have spoiled you.”

“So who is going where?” Sheppard asked.

Jackson spoke up. “I’d like to go to the mining planet. I know the Unas leader and the language. I can be of help if we need to move the inhabitants.”

Landry thought a moment. “Carter, ideally I would send you on the _George Hammond_ but I think some repairs are in order before we put out into space with it again. The _Odyssey_ is available as is the _Daedalus_.”

They talked for some time about who to send where and finally decided to send Jackson with Sheppard’s team to the mining planet while the rest of SG-1 would go to Langara with Carter and possibly McKay joining them later.

*

Landry contacted Jonas Quinn on Langara. Quinn, though somewhat alarmed by the news, said he would be glad to see SG-1 again. He said there had been no reports of any unidentified ships within sensor range of his planet so far though he felt sure they would eventually come, if it was naquadah they were after.

Col. Edwards was likewise concerned by the news. He reported all was well with the Unas but he said he would be more than glad for Jackson to try to explain to them what was happening in the skies above their home.

*

\- Jack O’Neill’s office in the Pentagon, Washington, DC

“Sir, General Landry on the line.”

Jack pressed the button on his phone. “O’Neill here.”

“Sir, they are all set to go. We will be going to Langara and P3X-403 to watch for our attackers. We figure those two planets are the most likely targets for anyone wanting to steal or destroy naquadah mines.”

“That would seem reasonable. SG-1 find anything at Icarus base?”

“Dust. They said there was nothing left bigger than a baseball.”

“Damn. I was hoping for a clue.”

“We all were. Any word on the base personnel, sir?”

“Not yet. They went somewhere. We just don’t know where.” It was nearly the truth. As near as he could tell anyway.

“I’ll keep you apprised of what is happening.”

“Thank you.”

*

All the teams had reported to their duty stations and both ships were ready to head out. No one seemed to have a good feeling about any of this, especially Landry. He hated sending his people out to fight an unknown foe. He sure hoped they all returned safely home when this was over.

~~


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

\- In the office of Jonas Quinn, Langara

Jonas hugged Samantha as soon he saw her. He was a little older but still as eager and positive as he had ever been.

“I’m glad to see you even if the circumstances could be better.” He asked after Jack, Daniel, Teal’c and others he’d met in his year as a member of SG-1. It had taken a lot of time to put Daniel’s death behind him. It was not easy to be responsible for a good man dying, even if the man had come back and was now alive and well.

“We plan on lurking in orbit around your planet for awhile. General Landry thinks whoever the raiders are that they will eventually show up here. Your planet has too many people to evacuate and we’re still concerned about the naquadria deep in the core,” Samantha told him.

“I’ve called a meeting of the Ruling Council. I plan on telling the whole truth. They must know, even if there is little they can do.”

“Well, you can have your planetary defenses ready. Perhaps they will be enough to help. You are rather well armed.”

“I hope so. All those weapons we aimed at one another for so long ought to be good for something. Will you all join me for dinner tonight?”

They all agreed and SG-1 spent a pleasant evening listening to Jonas tell stories about things he had done when he was at the SGC. Cam and Vala had never heard some of them as not everything makes its way into official reports. If Jonas noticed how much the youngest SG-1 member looked like Jack O’Neill, he never said anything at all.

 

*

\- At the mining camp on P3X-403

Daniel and SG-18 met with Col. Edwards, who was as by the book as ever except where the Unas were concerned.

“Jackson, I’ll let you talk to them. Some of the men know a few of their words but for some reason, they consider you a friend.” It still rankled a bit that Jackson had been right about the Unas and it rankled that he’d had to bow to them too but they were still alive and still mined more naquadah than all the other sources combined. The Unas were responsible for this so he had made his peace with them, even respected them somewhat.

Jackson nodded. He wished Chaka was here but he thought he could talk with the Unas leader without him. He just had no idea what he was going to say. How do you tell an intelligent but primitive creature that someone might blow them up from outer space?

*

\- Jack O’Neill’s office in the Pentagon

 

Rodney McKay was still on earth. He was in Washington, as a matter of fact, being briefed by Jack O’Neill about what Dr. Rush had done.

“Is there any way to know where they went?” Jack asked.

“Well, if I can’t figure it out, no one can and I have no idea how to do it without a DHD to check or some way to trace their dialing sequence.”

“We have the address but we don’t have the power to dial it. Can’t you make a bridge or something like you did to Atlantis?”

Jack was prepared to be treated like a fool but it irritated him nonetheless. How anyone stood this man, he didn’t know. Rush was annoying and aggravating but McKay was even worse.

“If we could do that, Dr. Rush wouldn’t have needed to find a giant naquadria planet to get enough power to dial it. It simply takes too much power. Even Langara doesn’t have enough naquadria or naquadah to do the job. Wherever they went, they will stay unless there is a power source there much stronger than what we have.”

Jack frowned. “I was afraid you’d say that. You may go. If you hurry, you can catch up with Carter or with Sheppard. The choice is yours.”

McKay was flown back to Colorado where he gated to P3X-403 to join his Atlantis team.

*

\- Planet P3X-403

Daniel Jackson was hiking to the place where he had met with the Unas leader before. He got lost a few times but he finally found his way. He felt their eyes on him too. He knew they were watching but they would still make him wait. He had meal bars in his pockets, as well as a new lighter and a nice shiny knife as gifts for the leader.

He found the place and lit a fire as Chaka had done then he sat to wait as Chaka taught him, ‘for as long as it takes.’ He sat for only an hour before the leader and his personal entourage showed up. Daniel greeted them as friends, offering them his fire to warm by and giving them each food bars as hospitality demanded.

It took a little bit for Jackson to get back into the swing of the language but he did so finally and he began to explain about the ships and what might come.

The Unas had seen ships come and go as the naquadah was often hauled away by freighters. They understood about them but they did not understand why anyone would destroy their world. It was almost beyond their comprehension. Daniel explained as best he could that the space ships were fueled by the rocks they mined for Col. Edwards and that some men who were not their friends wanted to destroy the rocks and would destroy the Unas too.

Iron Shirt, as Jackson had named him, listened to his words and seemed to be pondering his options.

“Jackson help?”

Daniel nodded. “If I can,” he spoke slowly in the Unas tongue.

“How Jackson help?”

“We take Unas to new home through Stargate.”

Iron Shirt sat for a bit, seemingly deep in thought. Finally he spoke again. “We no leave. This our holy ground. We stay. If gods take us, we die with honor.”

Daniel couldn’t argue with that. He’d known that is what they’d say to him. He nodded.

“Very well. Then we will try to make the bad men go away. If they come, we die with honor too.”

He meant the words too. Daniel did not fear death and he would not desert a friend, any friend. He got the rest of his gifts out and gave them to the chieftain and his men. They reciprocated with a new stone knife for Daniel and a bracelet woven from some sort of tree bark with tiny stones braided into it. He put the knife in his belt and the bracelet on his arm. He bid them goodnight and made his way back to the mining camp.

Daniel Jackson was determined to save these people, as determined as he’d ever been to do anything.

~~~


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

\- Langara

The Ruling Council of Langara was being as stubborn as they had been before their near miss with destruction several years ago.

“Why would they attack us?” One councilor said.

“Because your planet is a huge ball of naquadah and naquadria,” Mitchell explained.

“But we are peaceful,” another chimed in.

“They don’t care,” Carter said. “We are not even sure why they are attacking planets like yours but they are and yours is especially at risk. They blew up one planet with a huge core concentration of naquadria. Until we find out why, who they are and how to stop them, your people are in danger. You need to have your planetary defenses on alert. Maybe even an escape plan.”

“For who? There are millions of us. We can’t just gate away.” This was from one of the former Kelownan leaders.

“We know that but perhaps you could at least save some, save your culture and some of your people if the worst happens.” Sam knew how stupid it sounded but Earth had faced the same thing on at least one occasion. That was why they had Alpha and Beta sites.

“We prefer to think there is a solution,” Jonas said.

Mitchell sighed. “When you think of it, tell us. In the meantime, you need to be ready to defend this planet and we will be in orbit, watching and waiting. It’s our best chance of catching them.”

*

Jonathan wandered away after the dinner meeting with the Ruling Council. He wandered through one corridor then the next, remembering being here before, remembering how Daniel had been fatally wounded being a hero and how Jonas had almost worked himself to death in atonement for what he’d done. It had taken him a long, long time to forgive Jonas Quinn.

“There you are.” It was Jonas.

“I was just taking a walk.”

“You look awfully familiar. Have we met? I think you’re too young to have been at Stargate Command when I was there.”

“No sir. You and I have never met but I’ve read lots of mission reports. I feel like I know you.”

“They said your name is O’Neill. Are you related to Col--- General O’Neill? You do resemble him. Maybe that’s why I think I know you.”

“I am his cousin’s son.”

Jonas smiled. “The resemblance is uncanny. I bet you hear that a lot though.”

“Not too often these days.”

“Oh, I almost forgot. Col. Mitchell said tell you it’s time to head back up to the ship.”

Jonathan nodded and followed Jonas back.

They were orbiting the planet in less than an hour, listening and watching for anything unusual, anything at all.

*

Jonas Quinn was meeting with the military leaders of his world. The former enemies still held their standing armies even though they weren’t at war anymore. They all argued a bit but in the end there was little to do but set all their defenses on alert and hope that SG-1 caught the enemy before they did any serious damage.

He didn’t doubt for one minute that they would be a target. He’d worked with SG-1, with O’Neill and Carter long enough to know that they knew what was going on and that they were usually right. Convincing his people was another thing but they had come a long way from the days when they were divided into enemy countries poised to destroy one another. At least they tried to work things out now before they resorted to violence.

He wondered about the boy. There was something more than just being a cousin’s son. He would ask Carter. Maybe she could tell him something more.

*

\- Aboard the _Daedalus_

“Do you think they believed us?” Mitchell asked.

“Jonas did,” Carter answered. “And if he is as influential as I think he is, they will listen. They won’t like it but they’ll do as he suggests.”

Vala looked at Jonathan. “I noticed Jonas followed you when you went for a walk. Did he notice who you resemble?”

“I don’t just resemble him. I am him, just… younger and different.” Jonathan smiled.

Carter laughed. “Yep, you’re different. But not as much as you think. Not nearly as much as you think.”

Carter went to the bridge to talk to Col. Caldwell.

*

“Our long range sensors aren’t picking up anything yet. It’s as quiet as a tomb out there tonight,” Caldwell told Carter. “I just hope it stays that way.”

“I kind of hope we find them sometime. I want to stop them before they kill any more people or destroy any more planets. And I want to know who is behind it.”

“Probably just some new leader in the Lucian Alliance trying to show how ruthless he is.”

“Well, he’s convinced me,” Carter returned. “Now it’s time to stop him.”

“Do you think there is a reason he is doing this or do you think it’s simply terrorism?” Mitchell asked Carter.

“I don’t know. Terrorism isn’t the Lucian way though. They are in it for the money. They really don’t have any reason to destroy naquadah.”

“Unless they are doing it to drive up prices for the naquadah that they have,” Mitchell said, coming aboard the bridge.

Vala chimed in on that one as she joined them. “Yes, they’d do that.”

“Then we need to find who they’re selling to,” Mitchell said.

“How will that help though?” Jonathan asked. He’d been with Mitchell and Vala. “I don’t think we can scare the buyers into boycotting. Not with our one ship to their who knows how many. I swear if I didn’t know better that this was something the Goa’uld would do.”

“But the Goa’uld are gone. We all know that,” Mitchell shot back, almost defying anyone to argue with him and no one did. He had seen the last system lord’s Goa’uld removed and destroyed by the Tok’ra and he’d seen even more than the others knew he’d seen. He _knew_ the Goa’uld were gone.

Still…

“Well, we know it’s someone, someone ruthless enough to sacrifice his own men with no regard for them at all,” Carter reminded them all.

Mitchell sighed. “It could be anyone, anyone at all.”

They all knew he was right.

~~~


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Neither one of the planets that the Stargate teams were watching was the next target. The next planet had a huge storage facility for mined naquadah. Storing and shipping the rare mineral were the main industries on Sequanah IV. The planet was sparsely populated and most of its inhabitants were natives of other worlds. When their sensors reported alien ships not far from them, the several hundred residents locked up, grabbed their valuables and gated to the worlds they came from, taking the natives with them.

But the naquadah was stolen and the storage facilities were destroyed, along with the few small towns dotted over the one medium-sized continent.

Word came to SG-1 aboard the _Daedalus_ rather quickly and to Daniel Jackson and SG-18 a bit later as communications were a little slower on the remote planet. They were relieved yet not really. All of them wanted to catch these people and stop the destruction before it got worse.

General Landry sent a team to question the survivors but there was little they could tell. Goa’uld ships attacked and they ran. That was it, really.

*

\- The _Daedalus_

“Maybe they know that we’re waiting for them.” Jonathan said when they got word of the attack.

“That could be very possible but there’s little we can do about it,” Cam said.

“This ship isn’t exactly invisible orbiting the planet here anyway,” Vala added. “I vote we go down to the planet and see what sort of food these dullish people have to offer. Maybe the food is more like Jonas Quinn than it is the people we’ve met.”

Jonathan had always thought the people of this planet to be a dull and tedious lot too but he decided not to say a word. Besides, he didn’t remember the food being all that fine either though they did make a nice cake.

“I’m sure we can find something to eat there, though the _Daedalus_ s has a fine mess hall too.” Mitchell didn’t want to go back to the planet. He agreed with Vala; he wasn’t crazy about the people either. He even wondered why Jonas ever bothered to go home.

They finally agreed to see what was on the menu in the ship’s Mess. To Jonathan’s delight, the cook was an excellent baker and had made chocolate cake for dessert.

They all sat at the same table and talked, not about the mission but about what they’d been doing since the last mission they’d all gone on together.

“So how is it to have your very own ship, Carter?”

“I enjoy it. My crew is great and it’s a lot easier than managing the operations in the Pegasus Galaxy was. McKay can be more trouble than a whole crew sometimes. And Sheppard only obeys orders when either he wants to or you force his hand. He is a good soldier though. One of the best.”

She grinned at Cam. “So is SG-1 as fun since the ‘band’ left you again?”

“Hey, I still got Daniel and Vala to keep the trouble level high so I’m happy. We’ll see how much trouble young O’Neill here causes on this mission, won’t we?”

They all turned to the young clone of Jack O’Neill. “So how do you like it so far?”

“Not much action and I *am* used to being the team leader but you all seem to have some idea what you’re doing so I’m good.” He dug into his cake. “As long as there’s cake now and then, I’ll be fine.”

Vala was so busy eating that she hadn’t said a word. Sometimes Cam wondered how she stayed so nicely shaped then almost blushed at his own thought. “Food to your liking, Vala?”

“Yes, very good,” she mumbled around a chicken leg.

They all just laughed. One of the men from the bridge approached their table. “Col. Mitchell? We’re picking up three ships on our medium range scanners. Too far yet to identify but they will be in range very soon. Colonel Caldwell thought you might want to come to the bridge.”

Suddenly, everyone at the table was all business, even Vala, as they cleaned up quickly and headed up to the bridge.

“Do we know what we have yet?” Cam asked as they all entered the bridge.

“They do appear to be Goa’uld in design, sir, but so far they’ve have not contacted us.”

“All decks, red alert,” Caldwell ordered. “We might as well be ready for anything.”

SG-1 found seats as the bridge became a beehive of activity with sensors and weapons being brought online as well as shields being readied.

“Send this message: Please identify yourself. This is the sovereign space of the planet Langara,” Caldwell said.

There was no answer at all. The ships kept coming. They finally came close enough that the planet had picked them up too and had brought their planetary defense weapons online too.

They all waited.

And waited until finally the three ships changed directions and left.

“Scout ships?” Mitchell asked.

“I’d say so,” Caldwell answered. “If they didn’t know we were here before, they certainly know now.”

“Is that a bad thing? Maybe it will keep them away.” Mitchell said.

“The _George Hammond_ didn’t keep them from Icarus base,” Carter told them. “They acted like we weren’t even there. Just honed in on the planet and blasted away. The only reason we took any damage at all is because we were shooting at them and a few of them shot back.”

“If we can’t defend the planet, then why are we being so easy to find? Shouldn’t we be hiding?” Vala asked.

“Like I said, I’m not sure it matters,” Carter repeated.

Carter and Mitchell were ready to chase the ships but they all knew that wasn’t their mission. Not yet anyway.

Jonathan summed it up for all of them. “So now we wait, dammit.”

~~~


	9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

\- Planet P3X-403

The mining planet was ready too. The men would gate out and the Unas would go underground where they had hidden in past centuries from enemies such as the Goa’uld. Daniel was torn. He felt like he should stay with the Unas but Landry had told him in no uncertain terms that he was to be on the ship with SG-18.

“I hate waiting,” Sheppard said for about the tenth time in an hour. “Anything yet?” He asked the ship’s captain, Col. Marcus Means.

“No, Col. Sheppard. You’ll be the first to know.”

Sheppard paced while Ronon and Teyla watched, both with their knowing smiles. Lorne, on the other hand, was almost as wired as Sheppard was.

“If Rodney were here, Sheppard would have someone to annoy,” Teyla told Ronon.

The big man just smiled and grunted, which was a whole conversation for him.

“Besides us,” she added and raised her eyebrows.

Jackson was flipping through his notes and jotting things in the little book he carried with him. He had said little since his trip to talk with the Unas chieftain.

“Sir, we have three ships on our mid-range sensors,” one of the ship’s techs announced.

“Any identification?”

“Too far yet to tell but soon.”

They all waited and a message came from Earth. Three Goa’uld ships had buzzed Langara just a few hours ago. In a few more minutes, the ships were identified as Goa’uld ships. They came in quietly and left the same way, as the three had done at Langara.

“Now what?” Daniel asked.

“We wait. Same as before,” Sheppard said, though he seemed none too happy about it.

*

\- Somewhere in the Pentagon

Rodney McKay looked at the information on the computer screen then looked some more. How Rush had dialed the ninth chevron, he didn’t know. Certainly not by using this information as it was. He and that child, Eli something or another, that they sent with him to Icarus base had to have changed something to make it work.

Really, other than as a puzzle, it was all quite academic anyway. Since the planet they dialed from blew up, there was no way to check and see what would work until somewhere they found another planet. And the thing was, they hadn’t even _found_ this one. The Lucian Alliance had given the coordinates to them.

He might as well report to General O’Neill. There was no sense in delaying it. He suspected even someone like O’Neill knew that there was no hope of getting the Icarus people back.

Unless they could dial back from where they were.

He wondered where they would send him now. He didn’t want to go to Area 51 and tinker with alien junk to see how it worked. That was a waste of his talents and his intelligence. Maybe he could hire on with a think tank. But then he’d have to put up with all the semi-intelligent idiots… It was hard to be Dr. Rodney McKay.

He knocked on O’Neill’s office door.

“Come,” the general shouted though it was obvious that he was on the phone with someone. “Tell them to sit tight. Those ships will return with more. I’d bet anything on it.”

O’Neill hung up the phone and looked at Rodney. The general had that deeply annoyed look that most military men seemed to have when they looked at him. “No way to bring them back, is there?”

“Not unless you have another naquadria planet to play with.”

“Just as I thought then. Thank you for your time, Dr. McKay.”

McKay knew he was being dismissed but he also knew that he had no orders yet to be anywhere else so he just stood there.

“Yes?” General O’Neill was getting that flushed look that military men eventually got around when they dealt with him.

“Where am I to go from here? You mentioned joining SG-18 but --”

“How about Langara? Carter is there. Maybe the two of you can reverse some polarity or something and fix this mess. You can gate there from Colorado. I’ll have you a plane standing by in a few minutes.”

As Rodney was leaving he heard O’Neill bellow. “Sanders? Get me a plane to the SGC for McKay!” He saw the general’s assistant come running down the hall looking as annoyed with O’Neill as O’Neill had looked at him.

McKay smiled. He’d rather go where SG-18 was but Carter would do. Very well indeed.

*

\- Langara

“Why do we get McKay?” Mitchell asked General Landry.

“Because General O’Neill said so.”

“Well, I guess we get McKay then. Carter will be thrilled.”

“Thrilled about what?” She said as she joined them on the bridge of the _Daedalus_.

“McKay is heading to the planet from the SGC. Guess you’d better let Quinn know,” Mitchell grinned as he said it. He knew that McKay had a geeky crush on Sam even though he was dating the pretty Dr. Keller from the Atlantis group.

“Oh boy!” Sam actually liked Rodney in an aggravated sort of way.

“I think they want the two of you to make some kind of miracle and make this go away,” Mitchell said.

“I think we’re pretty short of those these days.”

*

Rodney joined SG-1 aboard the _Daedalus_ in a short while. Mitchell had gone to the Mess hall and nabbed a lemon for himself and one for Jonathan too. He smiled, thinking about the first time he’d met McKay on Atlantis in the Pegasus Galaxy and how John Sheppard had told him that Rodney was allergic to lemons then given him one as a means of Rodney Control.

Jonathan remembered Rodney well. He remembered being responsible for sending him to Russia too when the whole thing was over. It was a good thing McKay didn’t know who he really was, he thought as Mitchell gave him the fruit and told him the story.

When Rodney beamed up from the planet, Mitchell threw his lemon into the air and caught it, grinning at Rodney McKay all the while. He was still grinning when Rodney gave him a very dirty look and asked Carter to show him his quarters.

~~~


	10. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

\- Somewhere in the galaxy

“Did they see you?”

“Yes sir. They did not give chase or attack but they saw us. At both planets.”

The leader smiled. He’d bet Jack O’Neill was so angry that he could barely form words. He knew it would be driving them all crazy, just sitting out there waiting and waiting for what they didn’t even know for sure. Which was exactly what he meant to do.

“Good job. Now we move to the next phase.”

*

\- Aboard the _Daedalus_

McKay and Sam were geeking away at one table in the mess hall and Mitchell, Vala and Jonathan were poking fun at them from another table.

Jonathan was enjoying himself. He had missed this though the O’Neill that he was now had never actually experienced it. He missed watching Carter talk about science and even though he had done a lot more studying this time around, he still had no clue what she was talking about at least seventy-five percent of the time. It felt good to listen to her voice though.

Vala was doing a more than passable job of flirting with Mitchell even though he was her CO. Since she was a civilian contractor of sorts, rank didn’t mean much to her and aside from Daniel, Mitchell was the sexiest man she knew. Besides, he was safe. Even if he had wanted to be naughty, he wouldn’t. Mitchell was a man of honor, something she’d had to learn about when she came to Earth. She liked to think she might even have a bit of honor herself now.

Mitchell’s comm device beeped. “Mitchell.”

It was Caldwell. “We’ve got company again, Mitchell. I think there are more of them this time. I’m letting the planet know.”

They arrived on the bridge a few minutes later.

“What have we got?” Mitchell asked.

“Long range sensors detected a small fleet coming in. Still maybe a day out but they’re closing fast,” Caldwell told them.

“You mean I get here and the bad guys are going to attack?” McKay asked.

“Looks like it,” Sam said and patted his shoulder.

Caldwell ordered his communications officer to contact Earth first then the _Odyssey_ to let them in on the situation.

“Sir, the _Odyssey_ reports a small armada coming toward them too. Same as here, maybe a day out.”

Mitchell sighed. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“What’re you? Han Solo?” Rodney asked.

“Maybe. Does that make you C3P0?” Mitchell pulled his lemon from his pocket and held it out as if to cast away evil.

McKay actually said nothing but his face did turn a bit pink. ‘Score!” was Jonathan’s thought.

Caldwell was used to the antics. He knew how soldiers acted under stress. That banter was one of the things that kept them sane but he never could get used to some of Mitchell’s pranks and jokes. He said nothing.

*

\- On planet P3X-403

“Here they come again,” Sheppard told his team as soon as he got back from Col. Edwards’ tent. The team had beamed back down to help with some evacuation plans for the mining ops and security. “There are more of them and they’re about a day out. Same number headed toward Langara too.”

Jackson frowned. “Maybe I should let the Unas know.”

“The mines are closed and the Unas seem to have faded into the scenery. I think they know already,” Ronon said in a sudden burst of words. Those were the most words Daniel had ever heard him say at one time.

“I suppose so. I still feel responsible for them somehow.”

“Mitchell tells me you feel responsible for everyone.”

Daniel laughed. “Oh didn’t they tell you? I’m the conscience of SG-1.”

Sheppard said, “Don’t you mean do-gooder?”

“Well that too, I suppose.”

“The Unas seem pretty canny. They know if the mines are closed, they should hide, right?” Sheppard asked.

“Yeah, they do. But if those men land, the Unas will come out to fight.”

“Daniel, the planet is their home. They have a right to fight for it,” Teyla spoke from her own experiences.

Col. Edwards had decided to stay too. The men he tried to send up to the _Odyssey_ refused to leave him so they decided to wait it out in caves too.

“Col. Edwards, I don’t think this is a good idea,” Daniel started.

“If they can stay, we will stay. I know I thought of them as savage monsters at first but they’ve grown on me. They work hard and they respect us if we do the same. I intend on staying. Now you and your team get back up to that ship and defend us.”

Jackson was rather taken aback. Col. Edwards had been all for shooting the Unas to get them out of the way so the rich naquadah veins could be mined. He had been furious when Daniel had negotiated with the Unas for peace. Daniel would not have expected the man to have come to like them but it appeared that he had done just that.

“Yes sir!” He smiled at Edwards and he and SG-18 beamed off the surface.

Back aboard the ship, they checked the information they’d gotten and rechecked the sensors. The ships were still approaching and it looked as if they’d be here in less than twenty-four hours.

Daniel felt helpless, a feeling he hated and had hated ever since his wife had been taken by the Goa’uld so many years ago. He still thought of her often and wondered sometimes if he could have done more to save her. He missed her. He supposed he always would.

Almost as if on cue, the communications officer called him over. “Dr. Jackson, this message came in for you from Langara.” He handed Daniel a note.

“Daniel – Take care of yourself. You still owe me a date. Love, Vala”

He blushed to top of his head when he read it. That woman! She could do it to him every time. He hoped he made it back home to tell her that it wasn’t even a date the first time.

~~~


	11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

\- In orbit around Langara

“They’ll be here in approximately thirty minutes,” Sam told Caldwell and the rest of those on the bridge.

“Go to red alert.” Caldwell told his crew.

The planet below them was notified though they were monitoring the ships too. Now they waited.

Cam paced and Rodney went to the mess hall to find something to eat. He said he thought better on a full stomach and he figured he might need to think. Or maybe he might need a last meal. Sam calculated this and that and watched the sensors and scanners, tracking the ships.

“I count seven ships exactly. One Al’Kesh and six smaller ships,” she informed the bridge.

Caldwell barely had time to call ‘Battle stations’ and launch the 302s as the ships came out of hyperspace and began firing on the _Daedalus_. Any damage was minimal as the larger ship fired back at them, taking out two of the small ships right away. Another one was hit as they made a second pass. The _Daedalus_ did a bit of shaking and such but suffered no real damage.

“Reports coming in from the surface. They’re taking a few hits but nothing too bad yet,” Carter called out. “They’re shooting back.”

“Target the Al’Kesh,” Caldwell commanded. “All ships, be careful of the other three but target the Al’Kesh.”

Then as suddenly as it began, it was done. The Al’Kesh and its three remaining companions began to run and before they could be stopped, the whole group jumped out and was gone.

“Damn it!” Mitchell cursed. “I wanted to catch one. How did they do planetside?”

“Only a few minor injuries but some buildings were destroyed,” Carter answered. “Jonas says thanks.”

*

\- In Orbit around P3X-403

There were nine of them when they hit, one Al’Kesh and eight smaller ships. The _Odyssey_ carried a larger group of 302s that were able to wipe out all the small ships with only minimal damage to themselves or the planet below. The Al’Kesh got   
away.

As soon as the fight was over, Daniel asked to be sent down to the planet. His request was granted.

He found Col. Edwards and his men safe in one of the shallow caves that they had made into a home. The cave was warmer than tents or Quonset huts and more stable when the weather turned really bad during the planet’s winter season.

“You and your men all right?”

“Few cuts and bruises from stowing away things but we’re fine. Those 302s got them so fast that we didn’t even get to use our artillery.”

Daniel grinned. “That’s actually a good thing, Col. Edwards.”

“If you say so.”

“I’m going to check on the Unas. I may not be back until after dark. Watch for me?”

“Will do. Be careful out there.”

*

Daniel found the Unas quickly or rather they found him.

“Ships come. Ships gone. We are unharmed.”

“I am glad. Ships might return. Still dangerous.”

The big Unas patted Daniel on the back as one would a child. “We not fear. You go back to soldiers.”

Daniel smiled and headed back to the camp. He was amazed at how complex these beings really were. He had learned much about humanity from Chaka and from them. It looked as if perhaps Col. Edwards had too.

*

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

General Hank Landry had been anxiously awaiting reports from his two teams. He had been in the command center all day, aggravating the Chief to death.

“Anything, Chief?”

“Not yet, sir.” As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Walter announced that they were getting a message from the _Daedalus_. “They were attacked but suffered little damage. They took out three ships but the enemy made its escape.”

“The planet?” Landry asked.

“SG-1 reports that there was little damage there either.”

Relief washed over Landry. Now if the other one got by as well. He called and informed General O’Neill what was happening and said he’d get back to him as soon as he heard more. Unless he was badly fooled, Jack sounded as nervous as he was.

Word came in from SG-18 a few minutes later that both ship and land based forces were fine. Even the Unas, Daniel had added to the message.

The only thing that worried Landry was what would happen next. Could they fight off a mother ship with her full fleet? He didn’t think so. And he was certainly sure that it wasn’t over with yet.

*

\- Somewhere in space

He laughed. They didn’t do badly at all. He would love to see Jack O’Neill try to figure this one out. The bastard. Maybe he’d figure out eventually that all of this was for him. Well, most of it anyway. Controlling the galaxy supply of naquadah would be a nice bonus for all his efforts.

But that wasn’t his only mission.

*

\- Aboard the _Daedalus_

Rodney went over the notes that General O’Neill had given him once more. He was sure that he knew what happened and how they’d done it. But could they replicate it? No. At least, he didn’t think so. He knew he should talk to Carter about it but he wanted to run some more data, to study it some more. He didn’t want to be wrong when he told her his theory.

“What’re you working on, Brainy Smurf?” Col. Mitchell asked as he sat down beside Rodney in the mess hall.

“Just some numbers. Nothing you’d ever be able to understand.”

“I still have my lemon,” Cam laughed as he pulled the yellow fruit from his pocket. “You should be nicer to me. You may end up on my team sometime and I might not pull your ass out of the fire like Sheppard and Lorne do.”

Rodney closed his laptop, harrumphed and left the table.

“What did I say?” Mitchell asked to his retreating back. Then he turned his attention to young O’Neill. “Come sit with me, O’Neill. I seem to have scared McKay away.”

Soon enough, the other members of the team were at the table too. Carter reported that SG-18 and the _Odyssey_ were all right. They’d taken more of the enemy down but there had been more of them too. “I guess I’d better find Rodney and let him know,” she said as she finished her food and rose from the table.

“We were lucky this time,” O’Neill said.

“Yeah, _this_ time,” Mitchell echoed.

~~~


	12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

\- On board the _Odyssey_

Daniel sat straight up in his bunk. He’d been dreaming of Sha’re. She had spoken to him in her softly accented English.

“Look behind, Dan-iel,” she said as she smiled at him.

“What does that mean? What are you?”

She’d cut him off. “Look behind you…” and she’d faded away as had the dream.

He got up and looked around. He was bunking with Ronon. The big man was still sleeping like a log and snoring like one too. He got up and headed to the bridge. He wasn’t going to sleep anymore tonight. Might as well try to figure out what was going on.

Col. Means wasn’t on the bridge. His second-in-command was. Major Lorrie York. SG-1 had worked with her before. She was a good officer.

“Dr. Jackson, don’t you sleep?”

“Not tonight apparently. Coffee?”

Maj. York sent someone for a fresh pot and offered Daniel the seat she normally sat in while she took the command chair. “The bridge usually runs a skeleton staff when Col. Means is asleep but tonight we thought one of us should be here. So here I am. It’s quiet. I don’t expect anything more but it’s better to be safe, I suppose.”

“I suppose. I think we were lucky today.”

“I think so too. Several more Al’Kesh ships and we might have been toast.”

“It’s the Mother ships I hate.”

“You think they’ll come after us in one?” Maj. York asked.

“I think it’s very possible.”

“You’d think they’d finally all be blown up, wouldn’t you?”

“I suspect there were more system lords at one time than we can even imagine… and they all had Mother ships, probably even more than one.”

The coffee arrived and Maj. York poured both Daniel and herself a cup.

“I have a bad feeling about this one, Dr. Jackson, like we’re missing something that we should actually be seeing.”

“I have that same feeling. I can’t shake it.”

They talked for a bit longer, about lighter subjects then Daniel rose. “Guess I should try to sleep again.”

He bid Maj. York a good night and was gone.

*

\- Aboard the _Daedalus_

Carter and Rodney were talking about the ninth chevron.

“Do we have the equation that Eli Wallace solved?” Carter asked.

“Yes, General O’Neill gave me a copy of it to look at.”

“What do you think?”

“That the math is right. The boy solved it. It must have gotten the gate going because they’re gone.”

“Where do you think they went, Rodney?”

“I … I’ll tell you something but you can’t tell anyone.”

Carter was a bit uncomfortable with anyone telling secrets they shouldn’t tell. “Maybe you’d better keep it to yourself.”

“I think the puzzle was that the point of origin was earth. Where they went, I’m not sure but I am sure they locked in the ninth chevron.”

“That makes sense. I just wonder where they went.”

“No way of knowing without the device. I told General O’Neill as much.”

“Did you tell him your theory about the gate address?”

“I didn’t have it then.”

*

Jonathan was awake in his bunk. There was something bothering him but he couldn’t quite put a finger on it. Something about those raids. He felt like they were personal somehow. Maybe not directed at him, Jonathan, but maybe at General O’Neill. He couldn’t help but feel this was someone from the past come back to haunt them.

But who? All the enemies he remembered were dead and most of them were Goa’uld. Could there be one more out there? Mitchell said they were all dead. He seemed very sure of it too. What if he was wrong?

*

Vala was thinking too. She was thinking about Daniel and hoping that he was all right. She knew he was more than likely in some cave with those Unas creatures. Why she cared so much, she didn’t even understand. He said mean things to her and acted as if he couldn’t stand her but she thought he did care. It was in his eyes… along with fear. Daniel had lost much, too much, in his life and she wondered if he feared that if he let himself care, he’d lose her too.

Well, she’d survived being a Goa’uld host, a thief, and being kidnapped. She’d been burned alive and given birth to a monster in human skin. She’d even survived a weekend with Mitchell at his high school reunion. He wasn’t going to be rid of her so easy.

She smiled to herself and promptly went to sleep.

*

\- Jack O’Neill’s townhouse, Georgetown

Jack had just gotten home from the office. It was late, past midnight and he was tired but he knew there was no point in going to bed. Too much had happened in the last couple of days to sleep.

He’d lost a planet, a base, a Stargate and eighty people.

If that wasn’t bad enough, he had no concrete idea who had taken them from him.

He poured himself a drink.

He turned around and saw a photo of Charlie. He threw the drink at the opposite wall. Damn it to hell! There were days when he wished he’d been on Ra’s ship when it blew. He certainly never meant to return home, to care about people. Jackson. Carter. Teal’c.

Damn Nicholas Rush! _He_ never meant to come home either and O’Neill knew it, had known it the whole time. Rush had taken those others with him on his suicide mission and that’s what made Jack so angry. Jack had done the same thing himself and he’d had years to beat himself up for those who died because of his selfishness.

There was nothing to be done about it now. If McKay and Carter didn’t know how to find them then they simply could not be found.

And oddly enough, that was the least of his worries.

He had two planets to worry about plus untold others that could be targets too. He had to worry about SG-1 and SG-18 too. And Carter. The ships… It never ended.

He put his jacket back on and headed back to the car. At least he could find out what was going on from his office in the Pentagon.

~~~


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

\- The Tok’ra Homeworld

There were more people watching this drama unfold than anyone on Earth knew about. The Tok’ra had been monitoring everything the entire time. Not that they would actually tell the humans or anyone else for that matter. Their work was done, more or less, and they waited to die out if they could not find hosts for themselves.

But they still kept a watchful eye.

“Should we inform them of what we have found?” The operative asked her superior.

“Not yet. That would just open us up to questions that we can’t answer to their satisfaction right now.”

“Do you think they have an inkling of what is happening?”

“I believe that they do, some of them do anyway.”

“Did you know the O’Neill clone is with SG-1 now?”

“I had heard something of that nature.”

“Do you believe him to be dangerous?”

“No more than O’Neill is. He won’t like us any more than O’Neill does.”

“You must admit that he has some cause.”

“I suppose so. Did our operative send you any information of what the plan is?”

“He did not. Said they found out what they’re to do just minutes before they launch.”

“Damn. How about our other agents?”

“We lost them… when the planet blew. I assume they gated somewhere. We monitored Carter telling O’Neill the Stargate was operational six minutes before the planet blew up.”

“Any ideas?”

“Wherever Jackson’s ninth chevron took them?”

“That could be a problem eventually.”

“So what’s next?”

“Contact Landry at the SGC in a day or two. Ask if we can be of help. He’ll tell us a lot of what he knows. Who knows? Maybe we can actually help them.”

*

\- Chulak

Teal’c read the message from Landry. He immediately went searching for Bra’tac.

“Bra’tac, I must go. SG-1 and General Landry need my assistance. The naquadria rich planet from which they were attempting to reach the destination of the ninth chevron has been attacked and it exploded from the instability of the naquadria. SG-1 is in orbit around Langara and I wish to be there to aid them in any way I can.”

Bra’tac nodded. There were no crises at the moment for Teal’c to help deal with and he knew that Teal’c always felt the need to join his Earth friends when there was trouble.

Teal’c bowed to his old master and friend and headed to Langara through the Stargate. Jonas Quinn met him.

“Teal’c! It is good to see you! We weren’t expecting you though.”

“Good day to you too, Jonas Quinn. It has been many days. I decided that I needed to be here to offer my assistance to SG-1 if need be. There is nothing that Bra’tac cannot handle without me on Chulak right now.”

“I’ll let them know and Col. Caldwell can have you beamed up.”

Within minutes, Teal’c was standing on the bridge of the _Daedalus_ with his old teammates.

Teal’c looked at Jonathan. “You are the O’Neill clone, are you not?”

Jonathan nodded. “It’s me.”

It felt really odd to Jonathan since Teal’c was probably the best friend O’Neill ever had.

“You are one of SG-1 now?”

“New kid on the block.”

“It is fitting,” he said as he made a slight bow to the boy.

They took a bit to catch up on old times then Mitchell briefed Teal’c on what was happening now.

“No one has come forward?” he asked.

“They seem to be taking pains to avoid being identified,” Mitchell said.

“Then you must know them or why would they do such a thing?”

“That’s how we see it too. But it still doesn’t give us answers.”

“They will show themselves eventually, if we do not find them first,” Teal’c said.

Carter had been away from the bridge, in the ship’s science lab with McKay. When she walked in and saw Teal’c, a smile lit up her face. She hugged him. “Teal’c, it’s good to have you with us.”

“It is always a pleasure to see you, Col. Carter.” He gave her a rare smile.

*

\- Jack O’Neill’s office at the Pentagon

“Is Teal’c on the _Daedalus_?” Jack asked his assistant.

“Yes sir. He gated to Langara and was beamed up a few minutes ago.”

“Good.”

“Will that be all?”

“For now. Thank you.”

When he was alone, Jack opened his desk drawer and poured himself a Scotch. If anyone needed a drink, it was him.

He had a suspicion of who was causing all this trouble but he was concerned they’d lock him away if he spoke the name aloud. Dead men couldn’t command fleets.

Could they?

*

\- On P3X-403

The Unas knew someone had landed on the planet but had said nothing to anyone yet. They could smell the newcomer and none of them liked the smell. So far, he had eluded capture but it was just a matter of time.

The chieftain handed each one of his retinue a necklace made of shells and bid them put it on. Many of them had no knowledge of what the necklace was for and thought perhaps it was just for luck but the chieftain knew better. They had a purpose and if what he could smell was what he thought, perhaps they would need the necklaces.

*

When he was a safe distance from P3X-403, the man on the cloaked ship sent a message to his leader. It read: ‘Beacon dropped. Subspace signal set to begin sending at my remote command.’

*

Col. Edwards had noticed that the Unas seemed unusually agitated since the raid. He had put it off to fear but now he thought perhaps it was something else. The heat sensors had shown an extra person in the vicinity. He’d hoped it was maybe just Jackson come down to check on the Unas but when he’d called the ship, they’d said Jackson was there.

If it wasn’t Dr. Jackson, then who was it?

He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.

*

\- Langara

The Ruling Council was in session. All he needed was to get inside the building. The armed guard was very young. He walked up to the man.

“Young man, I am supposed to present a proposal to the Ruling Council and I was delayed. I seem to have come without my pass. Could you possibly let me in?”

“I’ll check, sir.” The boy clicked his mic and before he could say anything, he was on the ground, dead. The stranger dragged him out of sight and a few moments later, he let himself into the building.

The security center was quick to respond when the boy didn’t reply to their calls. They sent someone to check his post but all they found was a dead young man in civilian clothes.

At the same time, the man in soldier garb walked into the council chambers and smiled.

“Rest well, my friends.” He dropped a shock grenade and waited outside until it detonated. He stepped in and took the blueprints to the naquadah and naquadria deposits. He left quickly and boarded the tiny cloaked ship he’d landed in and sped away, undetected.

~~~


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

\- Langara

“The only things missing are the blueprints from the mines. Whoever took them either wants the naquadah or wants to make us think he does,” Jonas said to Carter and Mitchell, who’d come back down to the planet to investigate. Teal’c, Jonathan and Vala were examining the council chambers for any clues.

“I’m very sorry about the guard,” Mitchell said. “The thief had to have come in something cloaked for none of our sensors or yours to see him.”

“Col. Mitchell is right,” Carter added. “We are doing a poor job of protecting your planet and catching the culprits.”

“I think they have planned it this way. Their goal is terror,” Jonas said.

“They’re doing a good job of it too,” Mitchell said.

There were no clues, nothing to be done. The clothes left on the dead guard were not of any particular make. They were from a planet that made clothing and sold it on many planets throughout the galaxy so that was no help.

He left nothing else behind. Nothing. They couldn’t even find where he’d put his ship. They couldn’t be one hundred percent sure that he’d not used the Stargate. They’d have to check to see where it had dialed last but that would take some time. Time they felt they didn’t have.

Mitchell was so frustrated that he wanted to hit something. Only their enemy was like a ghost. He seemed to disappear into thin air. He knew that eventually the person behind this would show himself. It was too personal for him to remain in the shadows forever. But how much havoc was he going to wreak first?

*

\- P3X-403

The Unas came for Jackson. They told Col. Edwards in their odd halting words that they wanted to talk to Daniel. Edwards sent for him immediately. After Daniel met with them for several hours, they finally returned to their home ground.

“What did they want?” Edwards had been curious when they asked for Jackson and the seriousness with which both the Unas and Jackson spoke told him that it was not good news.

“They say there was a human here. They did not see him but they smelled him. They say he left into the sky.”

“Our heat sensors picked up an extra person yesterday. We couldn’t find him though. Then there was nothing. We decided that it was some sort of malfunction,” Col. Edwards told Daniel.

“The Unas say there _was_ someone here. We need to find out if he took anything. We just got a report from Langara that they had visitor who killed a Langaran guard and stole the blueprints and plans for their mines,” Daniel told him.

“Damn! I’ll get my men on it. I don’t see how someone could get away.”

“Maybe he had a cloaked ship?”

“Then how did the Unas know he flew away?”

“They said they heard it. They do have quite sensitive hearing.”

“I can’t argue with you. Everything you ever said about them was true and if they say we had company, then I’m sure we did. I need to make a report to General Landry too.”

*

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

Landry got their reports and so did General O’Neill. Landry read over them and then called O’Neill.

“Sir, I think we are dealing with someone we’ve dealt with before. This is all too personal to be some stranger.”

“And who do you think it is?” Jack didn’t let on that he had the same thoughts.

“A Goa’uld. It has Goa’uld written all over it.”

“But as far as we know, all the system lords are gone.”

“It’s hard to kill the bastards, Jack.”

“That it is. Thanks for the call. You have SG-1 and SG-18 poke around some and see if they come up with anything. Maybe Vala can rattle some Lucian Alliance cages too. She does know some unsavory people.”

“I’ll see what they can find out.”

*

 

\- On board the _Daedalus_

“General Landry wants what?” Vala asked Mitchell. “He wants me to contact the Lucian Alliance? Is he crazy? They’ll kill me for sure and they’d do worse to you if they get their hands on you.”

“We’ll have to capture one of them, I suppose,” Mitchell answered her though his thoughts on the matter were pretty much the same as hers. They would kill him first and ask questions later. Of that much he was sure.

“Well, I do know some people we can contact,” Vala said.

“But will they shoot us first too?”

She grinned. “Could be. You never can tell. Maybe we need something to trade.”

“Like what?”

“A ship?”

“I don’t think anyone is going to give us a ship to trade.”

“What about the Al’Kesh that Muscles has?”

“That might work,” Mitchell agreed. “And you can ask him for it.”

“I can do that.” Vala actually feared very little except being alone. She had no problem asking Teal’c for the Al’Kesh. He contacted Bra’tac and it was agreed that they loan it to Mitchell. The three of them gated to Chulak and began the one day journey to a planet that Vala felt was their best chance of finding some leftover Lucian Alliance members.

Carter, McKay and Jonathan stayed on the _Daedalus_.

*

\- The Smugglers’ planet

Cam and Vala were no longer dressed as soldiers but as a couple of smugglers. Cam was in black leather and armed to the teeth with a mix of weapons from several different worlds. Vala was dressed in a tight black leather outfit not unlike the one she first showed up at Stargate Command in. She certainly looked the part of Mitchell’s woman right down to the way she pressed herself against him suggestively every chance she got. Cam was fairly sure that she didn’t need to be quite so authentic, not that he minded.

Teal’c stayed aboard the ship. He was too well known everywhere to expect to slip in unnoticed.

The man behind the bar looked them over. “What can I do for you?”

Cam ordered them two drinks. He sat at the bar and sipped his while Vala tossed hers back in one swallow and slammed it onto the bar.

“Another!”

The bartender obliged her and she disposed of that one too. Cam was about to say something to her when a man walked into to the door and spoke.

“Vala Mal Doran! As I live and breathe. Hasn’t anyone killed your lying ass yet?”

Vala turned without even flinching and smiled.

“Boern Jax! You dog! What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been looking for you for a long time. I was about to give up.”

Vala looked at Cam, grinned and leaped at Boern Jax with an ear piercing yell. Soon, everyone in the bar had joined in the fun. Cam grabbed her from the grasp of a scrawny blond man and dragged her out the door.

“What the hell was that?” He asked when they’d gotten a safe distance from the bar.

“I … I think I was married to him once.”

~~~


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

\- The Smugglers’ planet

Vala and Mitchell were still hiding in an alley outside the bar when another man came down the alley. Vala peeped out from behind a wood box then turned to Cam.

“Crap! I know him too. I stole a ship from him once.”

Mitchell rolled his eyes. “Is there anyone on this planet who doesn’t want to kill you?”

“Well, there is Garen Toker.”

“Toker?”

“I, uh, was only engaged to him. He still liked me when we parted.”

“Would this Toker be of any help to us?”

“Maybe.”

The man had finally reached them but he was so lost in thought that he walked on by without even seeing Vala. They thought they were safe until he stopped dead still in the middle of the street.

“That scent! I know that perfume! Vala Mal Doran! Where are you? I know you’re here.”

Cam motioned for her to go and she stumbled out from behind the crate. “Hullo, Demetrius. How are you?”

“How do you think I am? You left me and took everything I had.”

Being Vala, she couldn’t help but say, “You didn’t have much, Dem. I did you a favor.”

“I don’t quite see it that way.”

He was a big man, rough and hard edged, and he towered over Vala as he moved closer to her. He appeared to be reaching for a weapon. Cameron popped up from behind the crate with his weapon drawn.

“I’d take it easy there, Demetrius.”

“Who are you?”

“Named Cameron. Jason Cameron. I’m Vala’s husband.”

Demetrius began to laugh, almost uncontrollably. “You poor fool! You’d be better off to turn that gun on yourself than to save her. Believe me. I was her husband once too.”

“That’s not your concern. Me and Vala, we do all right.” He pulled her close to him and kissed her cheek. “Don’t we, hon?”

“Uh, yeah, we do at that, Lambikins.” She pushed her backside hard against him.

“We could use some help. Vala is looking to hook us up with some old business associates. Maybe you can help us.”

“What’s in it for me?”

“I won’t shoot you where you stand for threatening my wife.” Cam looked dead serious as he spoke. Even Vala was a bit impressed with him.

“That isn’t quite what I had in mind.” He made a grab for Vala and ended up on the ground with a foot on his chest, a gun aimed at him and the knife Vala had relieved him of touching his throat.

“What did you have in mind, Demetrius? Shooting Jason and beating me up like you did in the old days?” She stood up and kicked him.

“Now you know I didn’t hurt you.”

Cam put his weight into his foot. “A real man don’t have to beat his woman.” There was real anger in his voice now.

“Where might we find Garen Toker? We would like to do some business with him,” Vala asked her former mate.

“Toker? Are you crazy? He’s mixed up with the Lucians and they’ve gone crazy since Netan was ousted as leader.”

“Crazy?” Cam asked.

‘They’re more terrorists than thieves these days.”

“Who is their leader?” Vala asked.

“That’s just the thing. No one knows. Whoever he is, he’s ruthless and greedy.”

“We’d still want to meet with Toker.”

“Ask Ed in the bar,” he finally said.

“You mean old drunk Ed?” Vala remembered the old man who was always in the same seat every time she’d ever been there.

“Yep, ask him. He ain’t near as old or as drunk as he seems.”

“If we let you go, can you behave and be quiet?”

“If you cut me in on your deal.” The big man’s eyes shone with greed.

“I could just cut you,” Vala purred as she moved the knife up to his throat again.

“All right! All right! He lives with MaryAna Poole when he’s home. She lives out past the old mine.”

“I know where MaryAna lives. I followed you out there enough times,” Vala told him.

“Can I go now?”

“I don’t think so,” Cam answered. “I think you’re going with us, help us find Toker.”

Soon the three of them were walking down a small dirt road in the moonlight. Vala walked beside Demetrius while Cam kept his gun trained on the man’s back. The house was an old rundown shack, more or less, but most houses on this planet were like that. It had once been a prosperous agricultural planet but as the land had been overused and became poor, it became a haven for people with nowhere else to go and it still was.

Vala knocked on the door. A once pretty blond woman came to the door. “Whatd’ya want? Vala!? Is that you? And Demetrius? Who else is that?”

“My husband, Jason Cameron,” Vala answered her. “Is Garen here? I need to talk to him.”

“Naw. He ain’t been home in several days. Went off with that damned Falker again. Something about the Lucian Alliance. If they make so damned much money, why don’t he bring me none?”

“Did he say when he’d be back?” Cameron asked her.

“Never does. I just expect him when I see him.”

There was little to do but thank her and head back to town.

“What are we gonna do with him?” Vala asked Cameron, meaning Demetrius.

“I guess he’s our guest for the night. We need to find a room though.”

“There’s a boarding house in town. Not fancy but they do have beds and the owner makes breakfast every day,” Vala said. “That place still around, Dem?”

“Yep, old Etta is still renting out her rooms and making gravy and biscuits every mornin’.”

The three of them got a room, one with two beds. Vala slept with Cam, who kept one eye open all night. He wasn’t sure which one he trusted less, Vala or her former husband. Morning brought breakfast, which reminded Cam of his Grandma’s cooking. He told Etta so too and made a lifelong friend of the tiny old woman. She even gave him a hug.

Just as they were leaving Etta’s, Demetrius poked Vala. “There! There he is. Garen Toker!”

~~~


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

 

“No, Jack. I haven’t heard any more from Mitchell and Vala. Teal’c is still orbiting the planet but he’s heard nothing. I’m sure, knowing Vala, they’ve found some trouble to get into,” General Landry told General O’Neill.

Jack told him to keep him updated.

“I’ll let you know when I hear anything.”

*

\- The Smugglers’ planet

The subjects of the Generals’ conversation were at the moment stepping out in the street to meet Garen Toker.

“Our friend tells us you can hook us up with the Lucian Alliance,” Mitchell said as an opening.

Toker pulled a weapon but he was not as fast as Mitchell; they stood with weapons aimed at one another.

“Who told you that? Vala here? She don’t know nothin’ about me.”

“Never mind. Is it true?”

“If it is?”

“We want to deal with them.”

“Buying?”

“Perhaps,” Cam made his answers as short and uninformative as Toker’s were. “Or maybe we have somethin’ to sell.”

“I’ll have to get back to you.”

“No good. We have to go if it’s no deal.”

“All right but if they shoot you when you walk in, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Cam nodded.

“Meet me at MaryAna’s in an hour.” And he was gone, slipping away behind a building.

Cam turned to Vala. “I’m not sure what we’re getting into but we need to let Teal’c know.”

“Who is Teal’c?” Demetrius asked.

“He is our partner.”

Cam walked a distance from Vala and Demetrius and contacted Teal’c.

“We are about to meet with the Lucian Alliance. Just wanted to give you a heads up. If things get weird, leave.”

“I shall monitor airspace for ships. I have no intention of leaving you two alone.”

Cam knew there was no use arguing with Teal’c so he agreed and rejoined Vala and her former husband. They were arguing.

“Darling, will you tell Dem that he isn’t going with us?”

“Well, is he any good with a gun?” Cam asked.

“I’m better and I don’t trust him not to shoot me,” Vala answered.

Mitchell knew that if they left him behind, Dem be in a saloon in less than an hour telling anyone who would listen that Vala and her new husband were looking to join the Lucian Alliance.

“Let him tag along. We can use another pair of eyes.”

Vala started to protest until Cam pulled her close and kissed her to shut her up.

In one hour, the three of them were at MaryAna’s house when Token arrived with a woman. Vala stared almost openmouthed. Using one of Jack O’Neill’s favorite terms, she leaned close to Mitchell and whispered, “Snakehead.”

Mitchell stiffened.

Vala had never been subtle and she wasn’t now. “Why is a Goa’uld representing the Lucian Alliance?”

“Whatever do you mean?” She was almost as tall as Mitchell with blond hair to her hips. She wore black leather much like the clothing that Vala sported.

“You are a Goa’uld.”

“Is this true?” Toker asked the woman.

She flashed her eyes at him and Cam hit her with a Zat gun. She went down.

“Let’s get the hell out of here!”

He messaged Teal’c and they headed for the landing place. Toker had been too stunned to follow them though Demetrius was right on their heels.

“You can’t go with us!” Vala shouted at him as they came into the clearing where Teal’c would land.

“I sure ain’t stayin’ here! I’m as good as dead.”

“He’s right… we have to take him with us,” Cam said as they ran.

They still didn’t see anyone behind them but there was no need to linger. Teal’c landed the ship and opened the hatch so they could get inside and soon they were leaving the tiny planet behind.

Demetrius looked at Teal’c and back at Vala and Cam. “Just who the hell are you?”

“That doesn’t matter right now. What matters is we get away.”

And they did.

*

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

General Landry held the phone away from his ear to keep Jack O’Neill’s shout from deafening him.

“Yes, you heard me right. The representative from the Lucian Alliance was a Goa’uld. Yes, they got away but they sort of brought an ex-husband of Vala’s along. He was unfortunate enough to witness the whole thing and they were pretty sure that he’d be killed if they left him.”

He held the phone away from his ear again.

“I don’t know. They are on the way back to Langara but I expect this Demetrius person is going to have to stay on the ship with Teal’c. We don’t know for certain that he isn’t with the Lucian Alliance too.”

*  
\- Aboard Teal’c’s Al’Kesh

“What are you going to do with me?” Demetrius was getting concerned for his safety. After all, it had been years since he’d seen Vala and evidently, lots had happened to her since then.

“We’re going to leave you here with Teal’c right now. Vala is going to stay and keep you company.” Mitchell smiled at Vala, whose only reply was to stick her tongue out at him.

They arrived back at Langara in a fairly short time. Mitchell contacted the _Daedalus_. “Miss us?” He asked Carter.

“We had an uneventful day while you were gone. Jonathan threatened Rodney with the lemon but that was about all that happened. I just got word from General Landry on what you found. I do find it quite disturbing that the Goa’uld seem to be involved in the Lucian Alliance.”

“Tell me about it!”

“I’m headed over but am leaving Vala and our guest here with Teal’c for now.”

“I’ll have Col. Caldwell to beam you aboard. I’m sure that General Landry has more questions for you too.”

Vala tried wheedling to get Mitchell to take her back to the _Daedalus_ too but it was to no avail.

“Look, this guy is scared and scared men do stupid things. We don’t need stupid right now.”

She reluctantly agreed that Mitchell was right. “But you owe me one, Mitchell, a big one and I won’t let you forget it.”

“I’m sure you won’t,” he said as he grinned at her and then was gone.

~~~


	17. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

\- Aboard the _Odyssey_

“So now we know the Lucian Alliance has been infiltrated by Goa’uld but which ones?” Sheppard said as SG-18 and Dr. Jackson sat in the conference room.

“That’s the question,” Daniel said. “We are fairly sure that the system lords are gone and if they are gone, then there isn’t anyone producing new larvae and most of the Jaffa, if not all, have joined with the other Jaffa in trying to forge a government of their own. So who are they?”

“The Wraith were easier to deal with… they didn’t look like us,” John said with his patented wry look.

“The Goa’uld are too arrogant to keep who they are a secret for long. And having Vala and Carter help us too,” Daniel replied.

“Oh yeah, both of them carried symbiotes once, didn’t they?” Sheppard asked.

“Vala was actually host to a very powerful Goa’uld system lord herself and the Tok’ra freed her.”

“We need to catch our Lucian too. That will be impossible if they don’t send another one though,” Sheppard said.

*

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

Jack O’Neill was sitting at the conference table, looking gloomily into his cup of coffee. He wasn’t the only person there. Carter and Mitchell along with Sheppard and Jackson were sitting on either side while General Landry sat all the way down at the other end.

“Snakeheads? We’ve got snakeheads? How the hell did that happen?” Jack was livid. There was no one in the galaxy who hated the Goa’uld more than General O’Neill. Not even the Jaffa.

“No one knows, Jack.” Daniel was brave enough to speak, always had been. “You know there was no way to kill them all. Getting the most powerful ones was the best we could do.”

“When we de-Baaled Baal, I thought that was the end of it,” Jack said, almost pouting.

“We always knew there could be small groups of them out there and we’ve never uncovered all the people we knew were in the Trust,” Carter reminded him.

“Still, I think they are doing this for spite.”

“That, I wouldn’t doubt. They always seemed to have something personal against you, but then you were the one who upset their little game when you and Daniel traveled through the gate all those years ago,” Carter said.

“Hooray for me.” Jack said gloomily.

“Seems to me we just have to catch the one Vala and I met,” Mitchell said. He always was the optimist of the group.

“Why didn’t you catch her when you had the chance?” Jack asked.

“Well, that _is_ the question but we were taken completely by surprise and by the time we realized what was going on, we needed to get away from her and her glowing eyes.”

“Maybe she’s still there,” Daniel said doubtfully.

*

\- Aboard the Mother ship

The she in question was reporting to her lord.

“Mitchell and Vala?” He laughed. “I’ll bet they were surprised when they realized you were Goa’uld. They are going to start hunting us. I’m not quite ready to be found yet. Maybe we should disappear for a few days.”

And they did.

*

All of the watched planets reported complete quiet. It was so quiet that it was eerie. Everyone knew that this had to be the calm before the storm. It always seemed to happen that way.

Mitchell and SG-1 were bored aboard ship with little to nothing to do. Carter and McKay did bounce theories about the ninth chevron off of one another and argued over mathematical problems that only gave Mitchell a headache. Demetrius had been sent to Earth for the duration then he’d be returned home.

On the _Odyssey_ , Daniel chattered to anyone who would listen about the interesting things about the Unas and their culture. Ronon, oddly enough, seemed to be the one who listened the most or perhaps he didn’t listen at all but had perfected the art of acting as if he did.

Jack O’Neill paced in his office and cursed a lot. He hated the Goa'uld!

 

*

Out in a quiet corner of the galaxy, a massive fleet began to gather together. This fleet was not human nor Goa’uld. They would fly in silently when the time was right and do what they needed to do. Their days of surgical strikes were over. They had amassed enough hardware and ships to take on almost anyone in the galaxy now and they had one target, the same target they’d always had.

They were the battle fleet of the Tok’ra, a fleet that neither Earth nor any of its allies knew about. And they were going to destroy the last of the Goa’uld, even if it meant their own destruction.

*

Cameron Mitchell woke in the middle of the night. He’d had a very strange dream. His father kept saying to him, “Look behind you, son. Just look behind you.”

How odd.

Did it mean something? If so, what?

*

Vala dreamed too. She was host to Qetesh once more and Baal kept asking her if she wanted to be his queen. She was laughing at him as she woke in a cold sweat.

She tried to never think of her days as host to Qetesh. She had done many horrible things to many people and despite the fact that she, Vala, was not Qetesh, she still felt a certain amount of guilt for all the suffering she had caused.

She got up and went in search of a cup of coffee. There would be no more sleep tonight.

*

The Unas waited and listened. They knew he was coming back. They knew he wanted the rocks they mined for the humans. They had cleaned their weapons and sharpened their blades. They would not be enslaved again, especially not by the ones they could smell when they tracked the intruder back to his ship.

They would never serve the Goa’uld again. They would die first. Every last one of them. Iron Shirt had given them all necklaces as protection from the Goa’uld.

*

Several communication tracking stations began to pick up coded and encrypted messages going to different locations all over the galaxy and all at about the same time. Though they couldn’t decipher the coded messages yet, they did know one thing.

They all originated in the same place. And they knew where that place was.

*

O’Neill got the call at 2:27 am.

His first thought was that something had happened to Carter, Jackson or Teal’c but he brushed those thoughts away as he listened. After a few minutes, he told the caller that he would call back as soon as possible.

“We’ve got you, you son of a bitch!” He shouted as he hung up the phone.

He had no doubt it was all a trap but that had never stopped him before.

~~~


	18. Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

\- A Mother ship, somewhere in the galaxy

The leader of the Lucian Alliance laughed.

“The trap is set and Jack O’Neill knows it but he can’t resist it! This is the moment I’ve been waiting for.”

The Lucian Alliance members in the room realized that they were being used as puppets by their new leader. Many of them didn’t care very much but some were seriously only in it for money. They had no other agenda and they knew now that there would be little for them in the end. Little but death.

These few members began to think of ways to turn a profit and rid themselves of this Goa’uld who had taken over after their leadership crumbled when Netan was killed by one of their own. The Alliance members had fought like dogs over a bone and somehow this man, this - creature had come out on top.

He had to be disposed of was the thought in more than one mind.

*

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

General Landry was on the phone with General O’Neill.

“Are you sure you want everything we can muster?” Landry wasn’t too sure about this idea of sending all their ships to one place. It would leave Earth almost completely unprotected.

“Yes, I know it’s a trap. But we still have to assume he’s going to be there, whoever he is.”

“Maybe he’s heading here to Earth instead,” Landry said.

“I’ll be waiting.”

“You think he’s coming personally for you?”

“No, I think he’ll go after SG-1. That will hurt me more.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, I am. And if anyone in the galaxy can beat this man, it is SG-1.”

“I can’t argue with that. They’ve beat the odds so many times already.”

“Then send them all to the coordinates and trust them,” Jack told him.

“As you say, Jack.”

General Landry ordered all ships within striking distance of the coordinates in the intercepted message.

*

\- Aboard the _Daedalus_

Col. Caldwell read the message from General Landry.

“It’s a go. We are to proceed to P3X-403.”

Mitchell nodded. “Whatever happens, maybe this time we’ll find out who the leader is.”

Jonathan said little since he was the junior member of the team but he knew as well Jack O’Neill did that this attack was personal, not motivated by money and he knew it was against Jack O’Neill, so in his own mind, it was directed at him too. This fight was his fight.

“Mid range scanners picking up ships. Lots of them. Heading on an intercept path,” the young aerial recon officer said. “No way of knowing who they are yet.”

“So we wait,” Mitchell said.

“Long range sensors are picking up a large group of ships too.”

Everyone looked around, surprised. “This may be worse than we thought,” Mitchell finally said, stating what everyone else was thinking. The other carrier ships were heading to the same destination as they were.

*

\- In orbit around P3X-403

Daniel Jackson was watching the sensors as they picked up more and more ships heading toward them. John Sheppard was at his elbow.

“This isn’t good, is it?” Sheppard asked, almost to himself.

“Not if we have to rely upon our few ships to defeat all those. I think we’d be better off trying to make a run for it,” Daniel said.

“Generals O’Neill and Landry beg to differ. Maybe they know something we don’t.”

“I hope so!” Ronon said from behind them. They turned in surprise at the usually silent man’s words. No one argued with him.

*

All the ships converged around P3X-403 in the next few hours. There was no radio chatter among the unknown ships though aboard those ships, there was much discussion.

The Leader of the Lucian Alliance was a little surprised to see another fleet of Goa’uld ships. He had no idea who they were either. So he blamed his underlings.

“What are they doing here?” he bellowed to the bridge crew aboard his Mother ship. No one answered because none of them knew an answer.

His next question met with equal silence. “Who are they?” No one knew the answer to that one either.

“Which ship is O’Neill on?” He asked. He felt sure that even though O’Neill was a general that he wouldn’t miss this.

‘There is no indication that O’Neill is here, sir.”

“Find him!” The leader bellowed again. “I want him dead!”

“How, sir?”

“His DNA should be on file. Try scanning the _Daedalus_ for a match. That would be the ship he is on… he’d feel safe with SG-1.”

The technology wasn’t perfect but they did have it, stolen from a tiny scientific settlement a few years back. The scans were run.

“We’re getting one hit on the _Daedalus_ , sir, though it’s not a perfect match, it’s very close.”

“Beam that one over here!”

“Yes sir!”

*

\- Aboard the _Daedalus_

SG-1, Sam and McKay were on the bridge, watching more and more ships come out of hyperspace around the tiny mining planet. Jonathan O’Neill felt more and more that he might know who was responsible for this but he wasn’t sure anyone would believe him.

“Why did they all come here?” Carter wondered. “This planet has plenty of naquadah but not enough to bring that many ships to fight each other for it. I’d have thought Langara would have been a richer target with the naquadria there.”

“They’re not after naquadah alone,” Jonathan said. “They’re after me.”

“Why you?” Mitchell asked.

“They don’t know it’s me; they think I am him.”

“Him?” McKay even sounded confused.

“Him! Jack O’Neill.”

“Why would they want the general?”

Jonathan decided to throw caution to the wind. “Because it’s---” And he disappeared. He was beamed off of the bridge in the middle of his sentence.

SG-1 stood there stunned but only for a moment before Carter was on top of a console of instruments, clacking away at the keys as if her own life depended on it. Maybe it did.

“He is probably on that Mother ship,” she finally said as she pointed to the large view screen at the Goa’uld Mother ship that seemed to be parked in front of them.

~~~


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

\- Aboard the Mother ship

Jonathan O’Neill materialized on the bridge of the ship. He looked around and saw exactly who he thought he’d see.

“And here I thought we’d killed all of you.”

“Just who are you?” Baal asked him.

“I’m Jonathan O’Neill. The general is back on earth.” The boy didn’t seem one bit surprised at who he was talking to.

“Why is your DNA the same as his?”

“Oh, I’m a clone. Loki the loony Asgard decided to clone me…Jack and SG-1 decided to keep me since I was so cute.”

“Then you remember everything?”

“If you mean when you killed me over and over, then yes. I remember every minute of it. And I’ll be thrilled to see you die again. Too.” Jonathan smiled. While it was true he was a young man, he was also Jack O’Neill with all his memories and beliefs. And he hated Baal even more than anyone knew.

“It would seem that I have the upper hand though.”

“It always seems that way but SG-1 always beats you. Every single time!”

Baal laughed and had his men take his prisoner to one of the cells in the detention block.

*

\- Aboard the _Daedalus_

“Where did he go? Can you trace him?” Mitchell said, turning this way and that as if that would make Jonathan come back.

“His beacon says he’s on the Mother ship,” one of the techs said. He had tracked it while Carter was working on other ways to find him.

“Then they have him. We have to get him back,” Vala said.

“How do we do that?” McKay asked.

Carter smiled. “Easy. We beam over there and steal him back.”

McKay rolled his eyes. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

*

\- Aboard the flagship of the Tok’ra fleet

“I suppose it’s time to contact Landry,” Ter’net told his second in command, Jessena.

“Yes sir. I’ll send them a message now.” She sent the message through the usual channel, knowing that General Landry would get it within minutes. She stayed with her communications equipment to receive his reply. It came quickly.

“Sir, he sent only two words: Help them.”

“Then I suppose we must. Target that Mother ship.”

*

\- Aboard the _Daedalus_

Both carriers and both SG teams received the message from the Tok’ra at the same time. Col. Caldwell fired one back at Landry telling him that young Jonathan O’Neill was almost surely aboard the Mother ship.

Mitchell insisted that they be beamed over to the Mother ship at once but that would mean they’d have to lower their shields for a few seconds.

“Do it,” Caldwell said. He always figured he’d die out in space anyway and here was as good a place as any. He had come to like the young O’Neill in the last few days and he believed in the general’s mantra: Never leave a man behind.

SG-1, Carter, Teal’c and McKay were beamed over. This was not an unfamiliar thing for any of them except Rodney, but only unusual for him in that it was not a Wraith ship.

They managed to hide rather quickly, sure that their arrival had been noted. They were armed to the teeth with guns, zats, and plenty of Jack’s personal favorite, C4. Being generally familiar with the layout of a Goa’uld Mother ship helped them navigate.

“If he’s in a holding cell, we might try level four,” Sam whispered.

“So are we here to rescue him or to stop this thing?” McKay asked.

“Rescue,” Cam answered. “Until I hear different anyway.”

“As you say,” Teal’c said with a nod.

They set out to find their teammate.

*

“Someone has come aboard,” an officer told Baal on the bridge.

Baal’s laugh rang out again. “That would be my old friends, SG-1. They’ve come to get their little science experiment back from me.”

“Shall I have a detail sent to find and capture them?” the same man asked.

“No, let them wander about. We know they’ll end up in the detention wing, looking for little O’Neill.”

“Yes sir.”

*

“This way,” Sam called over her shoulder. She’d spent quite a lot of time sneaking around Goa’uld ships in her years with SG-1 and she knew where to find the detention cells.

They were on level four, an area with few guards until they got near the actual holding cells themselves.

“We can zat them,” Cam whispered.

“It might be better to take them out permanently,” Teal’c said. These were not Jaffa but leather clad smugglers who had taken Baal as their leader. They all knew that it was kill or be killed just as it had been with many of the Jaffa in the wars with the Goa’uld.

“It might be but we zat first,” Cam whispered then zatted the guard nearest them and Teal’c caught him so he fell silently and they moved on to the next one.

*

Jonathan O’Neill was not actually in a cell but he was tied up to a chair in front of the cells. A particularly ugly man was talking to him, asking him questions that he had no answers for. It was clear that this man believed him to be THE Jack O’Neill that Baal had wanted captured instead of a clone.

“So what did you do to Lord Baal to make him like you so much, O’Neill?”

“I escaped.”

“Not from him.”

“Yes, from him. He killed me hundreds of times and yet I escaped. Pissed him off, I guess.”

The man hit him in the face then turned as he heard something in the corridor. He never knew what hit him as Carter clocked him on the head with her weapon. He dropped like a stone.

“Jonathan, are you all right?”

Jonathan smiled a smile that was undeniably Jack’s sarcastic one. “Do I look all right? This goon just tried to rearrange my face. Took you long enough.” He rubbed his jaw.

“I’m not sure you’ve been here an hour, sir,” Carter said, realizing she used the ‘sir’ out of a long habit.

“Well, well. Isn’t this nice? We have a reunion,” Baal said from the doorway where he was flanked by several armed guards with their weapons trained on SG-1.

“You!” Cameron said, clearly shocked to see someone who he was sure was dead.

“But which me? My dear Col. Mitchell, surely you didn’t think you killed all the Baals?”

“Well, yeah, I kinda did.”

“You were wrong. Lock them up. All of them,” Baal ordered his guards.

~~~


	20. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

\- In the detention section of Baal’s ship

“Baal?” Carter said when they were locked into a cell. “You were certain they all were dead,” she said to Mitchell.

“Apparently I was wrong,” he said dryly. “They took our weapons. Even my C4.”

“How do we get out of here?” McKay was a little nervous.

“Maybe they’ll beam us out,” Vala said.

“Not with a battle going on. All of our ships will need their shields up and that means no beaming,” Rodney shot back.

“Then we have to find a way out by ourselves,” Carter said.

They felt the ship rock.

“What the--?” Vala said but she knew. They were being fired upon.

*

\- The Tok’ra flagship

“Fire!” the captain ordered and fire they did, at the Mother ship and at the smaller ships protecting her. They knew that SG-1 was aboard that Mother ship and they intended to disable and board it if possible but if there was no other way, well, sacrifices had to be made sometimes.

*

\- In the detention level of Baal’s ship

“I’m not going to be happy if they kill us too,” Jonathan said. “I never did trust the Tok’ra any more than I did the Goa’uld.”

This time Samantha was inclined to agree even though her father had hosted a Tok’ra and so had she briefly. She knew that Jack/Jonathan had had some horrible experiences at the hands of the Tok’ra even though they’d meant well at the time.

“All we can do is wait,” Vala said.

“I don’t think so,” Jonathan said. He lifted a square of C4 out of his pocket. “I lifted it from one of the guards when they brought you in here.”

“Didn’t happen to grab a zat, did you?” Mitchell asked.

“Sorry but I can at least blow the cell door if we can manage not to get blown to bits ourselves too.”

“How are we going to blow it?” McKay asked.

“It has a timer built in,” Jonathan answered.

“I will shield you all. I can take the most punishment,” Teal’c volunteered as he had many times before.

So they set about blowing the cell door open. They all huddled in one corner with Teal’c between them and the door and blew it. There was surprisingly little debris but the metal lock was broken and the whole group was outside the cell before the nearest guard was able to reach them.

They spread out so one guard couldn’t get all of them even if he did get a shot off and Teal’c attacked the guard from behind as he brought his weapon up toward Jonathan. The guard was not as well trained as a Jaffa either so that made it a bit simpler.

Mitchell took his weapon, Carter his communication device and they put the man in one of the other cells then went in search of a way off the ship.

They felt the ship take another hit. This one was harder than the first.

“The ship has to be sustaining some damage with these hits.” McKay said.

“We just have to hope that if the shields fail, someone has the forethought to beam us out.”

“Not until we get Baal,” Jonathan said and they all turned to see the same fierceness they knew so well from Jack in the young face of Jonathan O’Neill. “He has to be stopped.”

“If we get off the ship, we can see him blown to bits,” Vala said.

“No! I want to see him personally. Otherwise, he will slip away in an escape pod or something and turn up somewhere else on another day.”

Teal’c nodded. “I will go with O’Neill.”

“We’ll try to find a way out of here but first we need to find some weapons,” Carter said. They knew where the weapons were stored in a Goa’uld ship so they all headed in that direction, hurrying along as they knew they didn’t have much time before Baal knew they’d escaped.

*

\- Aboard the _Odyssey_

Daniel Jackson was talking to someone aboard the _Daedalus_.

“What do you mean, they’re all over there?” He said to the person he was talking to. After he finished his conversation, he turned to the members of SG-18. “SG-1 and McKay are on that Mother ship.”

“Do the Tok’ra know that?” Teyla asked.

“They do and they say they’re targeting engines only,” Daniel answered.

“Why are they there?” John asked.

“Evidently Jonathan O’Neill was beamed over by the Mother ship and the others went to rescue him.”

“And no doubt got captured too.”

Daniel smiled. “They know their way around a Goa’uld ship as well as you guys know a Wraith ship. I wouldn’t count them out just yet.”

“Is there a way to get us over there?” Sheppard asked.

“So the Tok’ra can shoot at us too?” Ronon asked.

“Maybe SG-1 needs some help. That’s what we came here for. I’m tired of doing nothing.”

The captain heard them. “It might be possible to beam you over there while they’re shooting. There’s a small window to get through the shields.”

“Let’s do it!” Sheppard said and for once, Daniel agreed.

*

\- On the Mother ship

“Sir, someone else is beaming aboard.”

Baal looked at the tech. “Are you sure?”

“Yes sir. There seem to be five of them.”

“More of those annoying humans then.” To one of his soldiers on the bridge he said, “Find them and bring them to me.”

“Yes sir.”

After the man left, Baal sat there and wondered how he was going to manage to get out of this one. He was surrounded by Tok’ra who wanted him dead even more than the humans did. He only had one trump card and that was the group of foolish humans who never seemed to understand that they could not defeat a Goa’uld, especially one who had all the trump cards…especially one who had the house advantage.

~~~


	21. Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

\- Aboard the Mother ship

It was pure coincidence that SG-18 beamed in right in the middle of the corridor SG-1 was running down to find some weapons, a very lucky coincidence.

“What are you doing here?” Mitchell hissed at Daniel and company.

“We decided you might need some help.”

“Do you know who is leading the Lucian alliance?” Carter whispered. “Baal!”

“I thought he was dead,” Sheppard said as they ducked into a small room lined with boxes of weapons of all sorts.

“So did we,” Mitchell answered, “but we were wrong.”

“He has to be stopped!” Jonathan said. They all noticed that he was sounding more and more like their old Jack than a young Second Lieutenant fresh out of the Academy. “I remember every single thing that bastard did to me and he has to be stopped.”

No one could argue with that so they all loaded up on weaponry and headed toward the bridge. The crew was tough and mean but not nearly as deadly as a crew of loyal Jaffa protecting their god. They managed to travel fairly quickly without actually encountering a crew member until they came close to the bridge. There was one guard. Jonathan looked at the man a moment then whacked him on the head with the butt of his gun.

Mitchell took point as they started to enter the bridge but was knocked back when the ship took an awfully hard hit from a Tok’ra vessel. The guards on the bridge saw them.

“Don’t move.”

Suddenly several guns were pointed at them. No one moved for a second until Jonathan spoke up. “Shoot and your leader goes first and you next. We have you outnumbered and I don’t mind dying to see the galaxy rid of that bastard!”

Baal’s men were first and foremost smugglers and outlaws and unlike the Jaffa, their first thoughts were for themselves, not their leader. The five men laid their weapons on the floor and backed away but Baal was fast and as deadly as he ever was. He managed to grab Vala and pull her close.

“My darling Qetesh, we meet again.”

“Let her go,” Jackson said, moving closer to the Goa’uld and his prisoner. “She is not yours.”

“We were going to rule the galaxy once upon a time, Vala. Remember that? Would you like to join me again?”

“You know better than that, Baal.”

“Didn’t you love being a goddess? You could be again.”

“Let me go!” The more she struggled, the tighter he held onto her.

“I’ll tell you what, Daniel Jackson. I will take her with me to the escape pods and once I make my escape, you can retrieve her.” Baal was making his way toward the corridor that led to the pod bay.

Jonathan O’Neill moved around Daniel and shot Baal. It was a glancing shot that only grazed him but it did make him let go of Vala. Jonathan grabbed her by the arm and flung her toward Jackson.

“Take me, you bastard!” He shouted at Baal, but he didn’t throw down his weapon. “If you can!”

Baal made a huge miscalculation as he moved to put a hand on Jonathan to use his Goa’uld powers. Jonathan shot him. Baal flew backward and all hell broke out among the men who’d just given their leader up as they scrambled to retrieve their weapons. Sheppard, Mitchell and Ronon opened fire on them and in a few seconds, the battle for the bridge was done with Baal injured and tied up and several of his crew dead or injured.

*

The ship actually had a minimum number of people aboard it and rounding up the rest of them took only a few minutes for Teal’c, Ronon and Teyla.

Mitchell contacted the _Daedalus_ and told them what had transpired. Caldwell beamed a security detail to take the remaining Alliance members back to his ship’s detention cells.

“What are we to do with Baal?” Mitchell asked the head of the detail.

“The Tok’ra are coming over to pick him up. They are better equipped to deal with him than we are.”

O’Neill thought that was a bad idea but he said nothing, finally remembering he was the rookie in this fight.

*

The battle was still going on outside the ship.

The Lucians in the Al’Keshes were not as eager to give up as their counterparts aboard the Mother ship had been and they were giving the Tok’ra and the 302s a run for their money. They were good pilots and were fighting for their lives, not so eager to die since their leader was no longer instructing them from his seat on the bridge of the Mother ship.   
The earth ships were taking little to no fire now since the smaller ships had all they could manage dog fighting with the Tok’ra.

*

SG-1 took over the bridge of the Mother ship.

“Looks like we’ve got a new Mother ship for General Landry,” Mitchell said as he sat in the captain’s chair.

“If the Tok’ra don’t take it away,” Daniel said.

The rest of the team had spread over the ship, taking over the operations of all the systems and powering the weapons down, leaving Carter, Mitchell, and Jackson alone.

“I wonder who this one belonged to,” Carter mused.

“This was one of mine—er Qetesh’s,” Vala said over the ship wide communications channel. “I wondered where it got to. It would seem the Lucian Alliance had it all along.”

“Are we sure this is the end of the Alliance?” Jackson asked.

“Probably not. We were sure that Baal was gone and look where that went,”  
Mitchell said.

*

A few ships broke off during the worst of the fighting and slipped away almost unnoticed. The Lucian Alliance may have lost its leader but it hadn’t lost everything.

Yet.

*

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

General Jack O’Neill had flown to Colorado while the battle was still being raged around the tiny mining planet. For some reason, he felt that he needed to be there. The Pentagon was the base for Earth defenses but here at the SGC, that was where it was at for the rest of the galaxy.

Landry was glad to see his old friend too.

“They came through again, Jack, just like they always do.”

“How did the boy do?”

“He was the one who stormed the bridge. It would seem that he loves Baal as much as you do.”

“A clone off the old block! Now did I hear something about there being some good cake in the Mess hall?”

Landry laughed and sent Walter for some cake for the head of Homeworld Security.

~~~


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

Within a week, the Earth ships and the Mother ship had arrived back home. Jack had had to go back to Washington but he returned to greet SG-1 and SG-18. He hugged Carter and Daniel as they came into the conference room. The others came in and sat down.

All but one. General O’Neill watched the doorway for that one. Finally he came through.

“There you are.” He was surprised to see how much the young man had grown. He was now as tall as the general and looked even more like him than he had before. It was like looking in a time machine.

Jonathan O’Neill saluted General Jack O’Neill.

“At ease. How is life treating you, Jonathan?” It felt funny to call the boy Jonathan because his grandmother had called him that too at about the same age this boy appeared to be. He supposed it sounded better than calling him ‘son’.

“I have no complaints, sir.”

“Glad to see you’re keeping out of trouble. You’re certainly doing better than I did at your age.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Then Jack turned to the rest of the people in the room. “So tell me about this. Why did this happen?”

“It appears someone, possibly Baal, wanted to control the price of naquadah in the galaxy. By eliminating some of the major sources, he could name his price for what the Lucian Alliance managed to control, which is quite a bit,” Mitchell said.

“And it was a perfect way to attack you, General O’Neill, sir,” Jonathan said.

“You think that was part of the reason?” Jack asked, genuinely curious as to why the boy said it.

“Yes, he seemed very surprised when he beamed me over to his ship. He was expecting it to be you, sir.”

Jack shook his head. “He always was an evil bastard. I’d feel better if he was no longer alive, to tell the truth. I never have trusted the Tok’ra to do anything but help themselves.”

“They have the only facility to safely remove his Goa’uld, Jack.” Daniel never believed in taking a life if one could be saved and he was probably the only person who could get away with saying so to General O’Neill without getting an earful.

“I know that but I simply don’t trust them.”

No one could argue with that, not even Daniel.

“Is there any news on the Icarus personnel, sir?” Mitchell asked. He knew some of those people. He’d met both Young and Dr. Rush and though he’d not cared much for either of them, he hated to think of them lost somewhere with no way home or even worse, dead with no one to ever find them.

“None. They have simply disappeared. We have to assume they died when the planet blew up.” Jack was lying through his teeth and he figured that most of the people in that room knew it but that was the nature of their work and it was his job.

“Have you figured out how to dial that ninth chevron, McKay?”

“I have some theories. Well, Col. Carter and I have some. But without a planet like that one with its large naquadria deposits, we have no way to test them. That makes them theories and nothing more.”

“I was afraid of that. I know you all are tired and would like to get home for some rest so we will meet again Monday morning for a final briefing. Thank you all,” General O’Neill said as he dismissed them.

*

\- Somewhere in the galaxy

The remaining ships of the Lucian Alliance came together in orbit around a small, sparsely inhabited planet that they had successfully used as a base for years, even before they’d stepped in to fill the void left by the fall of the Goa’uld. Once it was clear for them to land, they did so and met at an appointed place.

“I am glad that so many of you made it home.” The blond woman smiled. Then her eyes flashed with an unholy light. “I was worried that that fool, Baal, might get you all killed. We have plans to make, my darlings.”

They all gathered around a huge round table covered with star charts and maps and began to plot for another day.

*

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

General Jack O’Neill was in the guest quarters, such as they were. The room was small and the furniture plain and cheap. But the bed was soft and the place smelled like home to him. He supposed that life in Georgetown had its advantages but most days, he’d be damned if he knew what they were. He was a soldier but life had finally made him a bureaucrat, which rankled each and every day.

His phone buzzed and he glanced at the number. Damn. He had to take it.

“O’Neill here.”

The voice on the other end told him that the Icarus party had contacted them again with the communication stones, told him they were on an ancient ship that seemed to be careening through space on a mission of its own.

He sighed.

Maybe it was good that they were alive but it surely didn’t feel like it. He thought of the wiz kid they’d kidnapped and sent to P4X-351 and his poor mother, who was not well and now had lost her only son. He hated his job.

Maybe Carter and McKay would figure something out eventually.

*

Samantha Carter stayed on base that night. It was too late to go home and she was tired. She knew there was more to the Icarus puzzle than Jack was telling them but she’d lived with secrets ever since she’d come to Stargate Command. This was nothing new. Something about the entire episode bothered her but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

Cam Mitchell had sworn that the last Baal was dead and gone and there would be no more yet here he was. Were there more Goa’uld out there? She was getting too old to fight them.

Maybe _this_ really was the last of the Goa’uld. She really hoped so.

~~~


	23. Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

\- Langara

Jonas Quinn and his people were glad that the worst had been avoided but he had to admit having SG-1 there was a pleasure for him. He had come to care deeply for them when he had been a member of their team and he had been grateful that Jack O’Neill had given him a fair chance even though he rightly blamed Quinn for Daniel Jackson’s death.

It was with these thoughts in mind that Jonas brought up defense in the next Ruling Council meeting. And finally, for once, they agreed with him that their planet needed to beef up their planetary defenses and to ask the Earth for some help in doing so.

*

\- P3X-403

Col. Edwards and his group settled back into their work of mining naquadah with the help of the Unas. The Colonel even shared some lighters and food bars with his work force every week. He still hated to admit Jackson was right but he now knew that one did not have to be a human being to be a good person.

The Unas had taught him that.

*

\- The Smugglers’ planet

Vala’s ex-husband, Demetrius, had been returned home to find all traces of the Lucian Alliance gone from the planet. Not that he complained about that, of course. It made it easier to spend some time with MaryAna without that Garen Toker.

He sure did wish Vala was here instead. He missed that spitfire of a woman.

*

\- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

Morning brought more meetings and briefings. All in all, the Earth ships had come through with little damage and they’d actually not lost any of their 302s or the men piloting them. The real losses were the planets that had been destroyed before this final showdown. But even then the enemy had chosen planets with little in the way of population. That was odd, especially to SG-1, who had dealt with the Goa'uld for so many years and knew what little regard they had for human life.

It was almost as if… Everyone who thought it let the thought trail off there. Carter, Mitchell, General Landry, General O’Neill…

What did it mean?

Again, there were no answers that made sense.

So they closed the book on this mission. Jonathan O’Neill was mentioned in the mission report for his bravery in dealing with Baal. He finally felt at home in his own right with SG-1 and they all treated him accordingly, even Jack O’Neill himself.

*

Jonathan felt that something was off. He might only be a clone but he knew the Goa’uld and he knew Baal and this whole thing was just off somehow. He decided to say nothing though. Things may be different than they were when he was Col. Jack O’Neill.

A really odd feeling came over him. This was the first time since he’d been dropped off at the high school all those years ago that he thought he was actually the _real_ Jack O’Neill as much as General O’Neill was. Perhaps he should have gone into a different line of work.

He turned over and closed his eyes. Sleep was not long in coming even to his restless mind.

*

Carter knew that Jack knew more than he was telling about the Icarus survivors. She knew they gated somewhere and since no one had seen them, she was sure that they had gone to the ninth chevron. She just wished she knew where that was.

*

Cam sat in the mess hall, drinking coffee alone. The mission had been one of the strangest ever. It had been successful but there were too many parts that came too easy. He knew that things seldom fell together the way this mission had. It was almost like someone had orchestrated it.

He finished his coffee and headed to his quarters. He knew it was early to go to bed here on earth but he’d only gotten a few hours sleep in a week and he was exhausted both mentally and physically.

*

Vala and Daniel were actually sitting outside, where the emergency tunnel came out on top of the mountain with the sky full of stars above them.

“Vala, just how many times have you been married?” Daniel teased her. She knew that he really didn’t care.

“I can’t remember myself sometimes. But I’ve never married you. Want to give it a try?” She grinned and poked him with her elbow as she leaned closer to him.

“Not sure I ever want to marry again but I’ll keep you at the top of my list.” He let her lean and enjoyed it but he never let on to her that he liked it.

She sat up straight and looked over at him with that dangerous grin. “You do still owe me a date, you know.”

“That wasn’t a date!”

“Well, you owe me a private dinner then. Will it work to call it that?”

He laughed and nodded, knowing how easy it could be to love her if he let himself.

*

Teal’c stopped off to speak to Jack before he gated back to Chulak,

“O’Neill, it has been my pleasure to see you again.”

Jack nodded and smiled, something Teal’c had not seen him do since they’d gotten here.

“You do not like your work?” he asked.

“Not so much. I am a soldier, not a desk jockey. I’m no spring chicken but I feel as if I’ve been promoted to my level of incompetence. I’d rather be gating around the galaxy anytime than doing what I do.”

“Perhaps you should take a vacation.”

“Maybe I need to come see you on Chulak.”

Teal’c smiled almost sadly. “I think my job there is much like yours. I spend all day most days in meetings, trying to get one faction of the Jaffa nations to understand the other faction’s point of view.”

Jack grinned ruefully. “I guess old soldiers never die, they just negotiate until they completely disappear.”

“I will see you soon, O’Neill. You are always welcome to visit the Jaffa.” With those words, he bowed and left the room.


	24. Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

\- Jack O'Neill’s office in the Pentagon

Col. Young in the body of Telford sat across from him and talked about the _Destiny_ and what was happening to them in the ship perhaps millions of light years from home. Jack had seen many unbelievable and bizarre things in his years of going through the gate but this one was perhaps the strangest thing he’d heard of.

With all the different briefings he’s had from the different persons aboard the Destiny, he had no idea what was really going on. It actually sounded almost as if they were all on different ships giving different reports about different events. Maybe things really were like the blind men seeing an elephant with their hands. But he had no way to see the whole.

He wished he could sit down with Carter, Daniel and Teal’c and talk about this. They could help him make sense of it.

*

\- A small uncharted planet

“Did we accomplish our mission to your satisfaction?” The woman asked the man whose face she saw on her view screen.

“Yes, perfectly. Regrettably we did not manage to get any usable information on the ninth chevron. But we do know for sure that the humans broke the code and we know that some eighty people are wherever that address leads to.”

“Is there another planet that has enough naquadah to open an address that far away?” She asked the man.

“There are several. We are working to gain control of them as we speak.”

“Do you think the humans understand what they’ve found?”

“Not a chance,” the man answered her and his image faded from the screen.

Jessena smiled. Not even the men who worked for her had any clue who she actually was.

Nor did the humans who had met her on the Smugglers’ planet.

*

\- The Tok’ra homeworld

The ceremony was about to begin. SG-1 was there this time as they had been the last time a Baal had been relieved of his symbiote. Even General O’Neill had come, as much out of boredom as any other reason. A day away from the office was a day away from the office.

They all stood in a room that appeared to be some sort of chapel, the same one they’d been in the last time this happened, and listened as the charges against Baal were read on and on for more than an hour. O’Neill fidgeted like a school boy waiting to see the principal. Carter and Mitchell stood still, almost at attention, for the entire ceremony while Vala popped her gum and looked off into space. Daniel, of course, watched with great attention as he very quietly translated the words into English for the others.

The ceremony went off without a hitch.

Or so it seemed to the group from earth.

They all went home by Stargate.

As soon as they had gone, one of the Tok’ra guards stepped forward and removed Baal from his bonds.

“Your mission went well even though we did not reach our objective. They suspect nothing,” said the Tok’ra high counselor.

“One ‘Goa’uld’ is the same as another to the humans,” Baal said with a smile.

“We did manage to give ourselves quite a supply of naquadah. We have clues to the ninth chevron and perhaps a planet with enough naquadah to get us there. All we have to do is get the exact address from the humans, but I doubt that will be a problem. Our operative at the SGC has always been a source of excellent intelligence so I expect her to come through for us again.”

“What about the other one?”

“Oh, she is already poised to take over the Lucian Alliance in the absence of any established power.”

Baal laughed again. “It sounds as if we, the Tok’ra, have finally come into our own.”

“It does indeed. Now if you’ll excuse me. I have one more urgent matter to attend to.”

Baal smiled and left the room. He had been glad to get this body. The old Baal had been a strong opponent but now it was time to use the body for the greater good of the Tok’ra. After his other body finally began to wear out, he feared that he would never find a new host.

But he had and this body was fit and strong and should last him many more years.

*

When the counselor had left Baal, he returned to his office where a different woman sat with a stone in her hand.

“Hello, sir. I am glad to see you.”

“As I am glad to hear from you at last.”

“We are on a ship, sir, somewhere millions of light years from our own galaxy. We have no idea what the ship is doing or where it is going. It seems to have its own agenda.”

“Does anyone suspect you?”

“I seriously doubt that many of these soldiers have ever seen a Tok’ra or even a Goa’uld.”

“Any chance to come home?”

“Not that I can tell, sir. We can’t gate to Earth because we don’t have enough power for that. We seem to be running low on most things, to tell you the truth. Our survival has been a bit iffy at times.”

“What’s the name of the ship, by the way?”

“ _Destiny_ , sir. Dr. Rush says the name in ancient means Destiny.”

With that, the stone fell from the woman’s hand to the floor. She looked up at her superior and smiled. “It’s an amazing ship, sir.”

“I’m sure it is.”

~the end~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks:
> 
> I’d like to thank Larry for telling me I could do it. He has more confidence in me than I do, who betas everything I write and has never once called me an idiot, and who always tells me how good the stories are (even when I suspect they’re not). 
> 
> I’d also like to thank the owner and mods at for allowing me to take a trip into the Stargate universe and sharing what I found with everyone else. I’d also like to them, especially for all the work she does to make this possible for all of us. 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~
> 
> Author’s note:
> 
> I started this story with the idea to tie up another loose end and I think I have, in a manner of speaking. We see that our young Jack-clone has grown into a fine young man who doesn’t seem to differ so very much from the original Jack. I would like to have seen the boy show up again in the series, but I gave myself the next best thing.
> 
> I tried to stay within canon as much as possible and to that end, I relied on my DVDs, Gateworld and Stargate Wiki. My husband was always there to bounce ideas off of and Larian was there to comment and beta for me too. Between the three of us, I think we did okay.
> 
> I have deliberately chosen to leave out Stargate Universe canon after they left our solar system. I did not watch the second part of the season so I would not be tempted to bring that plot into this story any more than needed.
> 
> I hinted at a Daniel and Vala romance because they are meant to be together though I do think Cameron might tempt her just a little. Perhaps they will all get their own story someday.
> 
> I thank you for reading Balance of Power and I do hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
